A Tower of Fire
by Saulius D
Summary: Six months after the death of Avatar Rohan and he's still running, still hoping he can get away from it. But as time passes his mind does not calm, but falls and forces eerie questions to rise. What happened that night brought the tower of fire upon Katar.
1. Open

"In the era before the Avatar, we bent not the elements, but the energy within ourselves."

His shadow danced around in a dark room, whizzing by a late lantern with certainty, but a lack of poise. In the past few months he grew to like this room; it's modest size and set up: a bed, a desk and a closet against the wall. But now, as he was getting ready to leave it, he didn't feel remorse growing as he thought it would. Every time he passed the desk he glanced at the letters laid open upon it and felt confidence grow instead. Not a feeling he knew well, but one he now truly enjoyed.

Tomorrow, after lunch, he'll say a tear-jerking goodbye to his dear mother and master Hai-Fu and stroll of into the world with pen in one hand and coin in the other; in search for good people, great stories and songs. One of which, he hoped, would be about a medic saving a life in combat. The letters on the desk expressed gratitude for the act, but never spoke of it. He wanted to know. He needed to know. The back address on those letters was his first destination.

He walked to the table, picked one of those letters up and folded it so the painted family insignia was fully visible. A Dragonbird stood proudly in the middle of the picture; it's open wings extended just a touch over the circle bordering the flaming beast. He smiled at it and gently pushed it into his pocket.

A thud snapped his sight to the door. He walked over, opened it to a limply standing figure. It swung in its place, back and forth. It breathing with eery difficulty and strangest of voices. Soft, but powerful in volume, immense to the ear.

Strangely, the figure's head lifted and he saw it's eyes were glowing stark blue. Cold and empty. It froze him - the stare, held him transfixed. It was a kind of hold that he couldn't see. He tried to run and the muscles clenched, but he didn't move! He couldn't move! Something prevented him from moving. He sensed it, crawling under his skin, pumping with his blood, keeping him here.

Suddenly, the figure pounced and he was pushed back whole, hauled like a unit to the back wall. It pressed him into it and left him powerless; not even his head could move. It held him like it wanted, moved him like a puppet. Only his eyes were free and his lips were allowed to quiver as much as they wished.

It's hands reached: one pressed against his frantic heart and the other - against his head, thumb on forehead. A slow stream, run down from the second hand and nested near a tear-duct. He tried to blink it away, but it only muddied his sight with a shade of rose. The intruder inhaled and the hands pushed.

For a second, he felt empty. His mind was as clear as a river in spring. For half a year - nothing, but mud.


	2. Ep 1: a hunter, a healer and a fool

"... and then..." Kai continued, spilling out words between short, shallow breaths.

"Yeah?" Katar said, failing to keep a grin off his face. Burnt handles of his double swords swung loosely from shoulder to shoulder.

"Then, this giant Ray flies over me." Kai took few more gulps of air. It was amazing, how he could he could just split himself in half like he did. His upper half was full of energy, it told his story with his hands; but his beat shoes were scrapping the road, rising dust from the rocky road. He was tired. They both were. But they kept moving and a small village before them wasn't that far away now. "Well...," he continued, "not giant... I'm not even sure what that animal is," and his mind wandered off for a second, "but it was big. Real big," Katar imagined Kai practicing this, throwing his arms in front of him to emphasize its size like he now did. All that just made Katar's decision all the more crueler, when it was clear that none of it was true, "and as black as a murder."

"A murder? What's a murder?"

"Nevermind! The point is - it's pitch black."

The village drew closer. Two vendors one after the other were preparing to open for business this pleasant, if a bit hot, morning.

"So it flies over me-"

"I'm not buying this, Kai."

"Let me finish."

"That is just what I'm thinking." He was still thinking it over to be truthful. Kai's gotten better at this maturity exercise over time, but his next words damned him.

"It picks me up- What?!" Kai asked after Katar just burst laughing.

"Do you seriously expect me to believe that?!"

"Well..." Kai tried again, "if you let me finish-"

"No. Let's settle it here." He talked around his laughter like it was food in his mouth.

"Why?"

"You're small and all, but not that small."

"I was five!" he said, but that made the laughter louder.

"And you survived?!"

"Well... if you let-"

"Nope. Never happened," he said.

"You can't be serious," Kai protested.

"Start thinking what's for dinner," he said as they approached clerks' stands.

"Morning kids," said a shopkeeper. He didn't seem fazed by a strange time to prepare dinner. "See anything you like?" A small, neatly divided assortment of vegetables, raw and dried meat laid presented before them.

"Don't ask me," he said, pushing Kai towards a stand.

"This isn't even fair," he mumbled, throwing his empty bag on an overturned bucket before a counter.

Another clerk joined them on a nearby stand. An aging man with a balding head and a beaten brown shirt which was already wet below the armpits. He picked up a cup of his morning drink. "Just passing by?" he inquired.

"Yes."

"Where are you heading to?"

"Towards the wall." He didn't find any reason to lie. It actually helped them.

"Towards the wall?!" He took a second to size them up. "Already!?"

"Now, we don't judge people that easily, Udai," said the first clerk.

"Keaf, you know I don't," Udai said and after a moment added: "It's just strange is all." He crouched, began placing pelts on his counter, partially covering a collection of knives on it with fur. "You know what they've been doing there, right?" he started again, with a certain lack of enthusiasm that was indicative of incoming rant. The first clerk rolled his eyes, then gave a wink to Kai. "War is bad enough," Udai took a sip of his drink, "but now people talk of terraforming and not that usual stuff too. The things people say about it..." With a drift of a finger across the air, a crack appeared in a wall of a cup, top to bottom and Keaf shined his most mischievous grin. "Makes me think, you know? And I wouldn't put it past Little-finger to-" Swiftly, Keaf clenched his fist and a wall across Udai's cup shattered, flooding hair on his arm. "Damn it, Keaf," he almost shouted. "He always does this," he told them, flinging his hand from side to side.

"Cheer up, Udai," Keaf laughed, then bent down to pick up the shards and bent them back to a quality cup. "It's too early in the day for one of your conspiracy theories."

"Where is my metal cup?" Udai looked around

"Now," Keaf turned on his heals, "have you chosen anything yet?"

As Kai bartered for goods, the other one of two drifters took a look around. Six structures populated this little stop: two up front and four on the other side of the road. The two before them, he guessed, were owned by shopkeepers and they had plenty of space between them, while other four stood in a tight lineup and had nothing to be identified with, save for a title "Tavern" on the very last one. An inviting place, if a little short.

"A tavern? Here?" he acted surprised.

"Oh, yes," Udai answered, wiping his hand with a towel. "Many pass this place after passing the wall. From the other side, that is.

"And you take them in?"

"Coin's a coin is a coin," he laughed alone. "Koarsa could fix up a room for you, if you'd like. Get you some food."

"That would be great. Thank you."

"I'll need a name for your room."

"Katar." He turned to Kai. "Lucky day for you," he said, but the bag was already full of bought goods and the closest thing to an answer he received was a pack of frustrated grunts from the kid.

They started crossing the road, thinking of beds and their soft sheets when two figures, heading towards them, caught Katar's attention. Mounted on ostrich-horses and in full army uniforms, these facts brought tension to Katar's chest. He reached down to his right hand, pulled up a sleeve and groped his bandaged hand. The white cloth was enveloped around it. Still tight. Good, he thought and looked up. They were getting close and as they did his heart picked up its pace. Burning, pushing sweat. His guilty face betrayed him, he knew, but he had to glance at them, had to see what they'll do.

The first soldier didn't even drop them an eye and when the other passed, he just turned away disinterested. Mild relief.

The solders stopped in the middle of the street. One of them dropped down from his mount, looked around like he owned the town. Then, seemingly guess-picking, he went for Udai's counter, leaned on it and waited. Tension in Udai's and Keaf's faces began to grow as they regarded each other and the soldier before them. Already minimal morning chatter died down, even the tavern stood silent, as it often does in the mornings. Everybody who was not involved in the situation found themselves very busy or not in the area at all.

"Well?" the soldier asked eventually.

"Well what?" Udai asked back nervously.

"Why aren't you bringing me anything?"

Katar's heart began racing again, his right fist slowly clenched.

"Gato, I ... uh ... have nothing to bring."

Gato stood straight, walked around the counter and grabbed Udai by the collar.

Now Katar's hand shook; it was almost as if it was calling. He knew better than to listen.

"Please, I don't know why are you doing this to me. I have done nothing wrong."

I have done nothing wrong, Udai's triggering words made Katar pull his attention away, there were three people to watch now. Udai fumbled on his table with one hand, probably looking for a knife under all the fur. Gato slammed his hand on it, pinning it down.

"You run this table and that poor excuse for a cathouse. One would think that that would be enough for a-" something hit the man, and the back of his head exploded, splashing viscous red all over them both. Katar couldn't stop it, it was Kai who lashed out. Their bag now laid open below him. His right hand was red, overflowing with what now was tomato juice.

 _At least he didn't shout his ideals like he used to._

The mounted soldier moved towards him, unsheathing his sword. "You little-" Quickly, Kai moved the ground below him. Losing balance, he fell to the ground with a thud and a moan. His ostrich-horse fell on top of him, sprang up and fled the scene. Kai turned to Gato, but his impressively effective assault was cut short when a boulder, grass and all, hit his chest and blew him off his feet.

The view snapped Katar out of his light shock. He turned to Gato, saw another rock formation flying at him. He swam under it. The man was not being discriminate here, nor did he wait. Another boulder was quick to meet him. Swiftly, Katar dodged the flurry while reaching over his shoulder and pulling his swords out, splitting them in two and charging ahead.

He attacked with precision that had Gato taken aback, stumble backwards for a few steps while surprise dwindled. Katar stroke to neutralize, aiming more for the joints then the whole of him, but that quickly became futile. His aim was as true as it could be, but was not quick enough. It came easy for Gato to dodge and Katar's attack quickly became no more than dance. A new plan was needed. Fast. But Gato didn't let up. He found a moment and jumped back, started throwing boulders at him. Katar narrowly dodged the first one, barely keeping balance as it rushed passed his back. Second one he tried to counter, deflect with swords, but the force was too great and it blew him away.

He crashed into Keaf's stand. A bucket flipped over and water poured towards Gato. The soldier was advancing confidently. Panicking, Katar tried to get up, run, but was too weak to do so. Now smirk dawned Gato's face, he knew he got him cornered. Katar's eyes grew wide, frantic, searching for a solution. Gato came closer, looking down on him, arrogant. He stepped into a puddle.

Water! Katar thought and instantly started bending it. It didn't budge. He tried again and failed. He knew how it was done, saw it done, but it just didn't listen. Bending was not something he was born into and it eluded him. He couldn't just do it on a snap of a finger.

Gato stood above him now, raised his hand and-

"Wait!" he screamed throwing his hands up and waited himself. Waited for pain that just didn't come.

"What?! What is this? Ice!?" Katar peeked through his fingers at Gato, suspended. Ice covering most of his torso, leaving him stagnant. "You Water tribe, boy?" Katar slowly got up, looking as surprised as Gato. Most of him was constricted, even his head, which stared down. Only his feet could move - tip toe. "Answer!" Katar didn't, instead he clenched his fist like his father taught him and aimed. "You waterbenders are a lost cause," Gato continued. "Things must be real bad for you to come down he-" One quick jab at his jaw and Gato was cut silent. The ice broke and a slowly spinning soldier fell to the ground. Puking his breakfast out will be the least of his problems when he gets up.


	3. A hunter, a healer and a fool pt 2

Koarsa dropped a plate on a table from a small distance and a sleepy client busted awake, then she straightened her apron.

He oozed that smell. Sweat mixed with liquor. It drifted slowly away from him and she knew she would regret it, but still, "Hard night, Han?" she asked, only to pull him further from sleep.

"You could say that," he fumbled back with a slight lisp. The smell doubled, got caught in her throat.

"Ugh! Just go to bed, you bastard," she put up a mocking smile.

"And what will you do without me?" he laughed.

"Breathe," she straightened her apron again, brushed a flock of curly hair behind her ear, "for starters," and walked away, embracing free air.

"But then I wouldn't be able to-"

The door slammed open. It was Udai and two strange characters. One: maybe seventeen, dark, overlong hair; dirty, long-sleeved shirt; right hand wrapped up in a loose bandage, held the other one over his shoulder. The kid was no more then twelve, bloody clothes and barely conscious.

"Koarsa," Udai called.

"In the back." She pointed towards a kitchen door. The older boy dragged him forward, but his heavy movement was slow. "Quickly," Koarsa said before she ran up to them for support. They moved through kitchen into a cool, dimly light storage room. Vegetables and fruit were filling its shelves, smell of dried meat hung in the air.

They laid him on the floor and she quickly ripped his shirt, giving herself better access. Then, Koarsa pulled some water from a nearby canister, cleaned the area as best as her limited time frame allowed and bent some more water to engulf her hands with. The water began to glow a soft blue as she placed her hands on Kai's chest. Slowly, the light faded in and out, filled the room and detracted again as they tensely waited. Eventually, Kai coughed and broke the silence.

"What happened?" she cut into a brief moment of relief.

"Wei state soldiers came," Udai said, "they intervened."

The older one stood, leaned against a wall for support. He seemed spent, breathing long, hard breaths, sagging from the wall by the window where stripes of soft-edged sunlight fell from the blinders to the floor and to her glowing hands. "And you?" She glared at the stranger, but he was holding his intense stare on a kid by her knees. "Are you all right?"

He glanced at her; his eyes reflected light green. "I've had worse." A shave would have helped his look, maybe pull attention away from his unkempt hair, some of which fell down to his eyes, hid a part of his face.

"Yeah, right... you're next in line."

"No, really," he said as Udai made himself scarce. "I'm no more than exhausted."

Time passed, the situation with the kid was getting better and she felt Katar's stare diminish. He spied through the blinders now, looking, searching for something. While he kept that long take outside, he pulled up his sleeve with fingers that were long in the nail,. He caught a loose thread on his bandaged arm, redressed it so tightly it made his arm shake. It looked fairly well done, if not for all the harsh pulling.

"What's your plan?" she probed.

"Huh?" The boy looked at her dumbfounded.

"Whatever you've done, they're coming back for you. So, what's your plan?"

"We just leave, like always."

"Not with a military base a day away you're not. You can't just stroll out."

"Well... I-" he fumbled and she sighed, interrupting.

"There is a man here. I saw him helping people get away a few times. He could help you."

A thank you would have been nice, but instead he just smiled cautiously with the edges of his lips and darted his eyes away. A gesture so familiar she felt her throat clog. The feeling laid there for a minute, held by a choker and a betrothal pendant that hug from it. She pushed the memory away. She had work to care of before her.

It didn't take long for Kai to fully wake up after she finished. Surprised to find himself in a strange place he looked around.

"How are you feeling?" they both asked him in unison. She barely had time to look the older one over, but as he said, there was nothing to mend.

"Better," he said after considering it, "hard to breathe though."

"That will pass, eventually." She kneeled beside Kai again, checked her work while he tried to act away the pain of her touch. "I'm Koarsa."

"Kai. That's Katar."

She smiled. "Does everything else feel fine?" She asked him, groping him up and down in quick clasps. He nodded his round head. "What were you thinking, anyway?" _Attacking people so blindly?_ she wanted to add. "There isn't that many times that you can run into someone nice who would help you after that," she smiled.

"Oh, that's fine. Katar can patch me up instead."

She snapped to Katar, dropped another accusing glare.

"My father was a doctor?" he said, lifting his open palms up. Like that was were the issue lied.

"Thank you," Kai said awkwardly, made her give away another smile before her face turned sour.

"I shouldn't push you out this fast, but you two need to leave. Can you get up?"

They slowly pulled him up, though he seemed strong enough to stand himself, and she led them back through kitchen and back into tavern's lobby. Udai was working the counter now. He brought back their bag from the street, which Katar grabbed by the ears and dragged with him. A man from before was still siting by his table, drinking after breakfast. _What a surprise..._ She led then to him.

"Oh luk, the caravn has stopped," he said to no one in particular. The room was empty, save for them five.

"Han," she started as all three sat before him.

"Yessss darling."

 _Already drunk?_ That seemed like a talent by this point. She was even instructed by Udai to water down some of the drinks, but there he was, as macerated as a dishrag.

"They are in need of your... uh... services."

"We need to get over the wall," Katar awkwardly rushed into the conversation.

 _That's too far,_ she thought. _They only need to get out. Why make it harder on yourself?_

"Doo you now?" he said, arms flailing. His daringly red shirt rustled from their careless movement. "O'ly idiots an' criminals want to get over the wall."

"We will pay you, of course." He dropped his purse on the table. _What is he doing?!_

Han put his hand in his pocket, ruffled a paper. "And why would I take You-" He paused.

"We can pay-"

In a flashiest way he could manage, Han pulled a paper out of his pocket, tearing a piece of it away in the process and slammed it on the table, "-then you have a boun'y on yor head?" he slurred drunkenly..

His hand pulled up from the poster and Koarsa read it say: "Wanted. For the murder of Avatar Rohan" and above the words there was a rendering of Katar's face. A third of it torn off in drunken clumsiness.

A brief silence fell.

She knew Avatar Rohan. Well, knew of him. He was trying to quell an uprising in the Water tribe while she could still live there, but after a brief moment of peace he disappeared and the tribe split not half a year ago.

 _Katar did that!_ she glared at him. He and Kai sat as they did before, like they've heard this too many times to be bothered. They just exchanged glances, nodded to each other. "I thought he was a professional," Katar told Koarsa, while pretending to be discreet.

"I heard that!" Han exclaimed "And normally... there would be no problEm. But seal," he leaned in, looking at Koarsa, "your lil' friends here hava knack for getting in trouble. And that!" He dabbed Katar's purse. "Jus' might cost you mole," he said and their silent eyes fell away, but Han's fell on her. "Wha' do you say, Koarsa?" Han said and grinned.

"What?!" her initial reaction burst out. It was a joke between them - her getting passed the wall. She wanted to, she did, but the idea was a joke!

"Two thirds now, the rest - la'er." He leaned back, confident.

 _He must be joking again,_ she thought. The idea never seemed plausible, but the way he looked at her now, even through that drunken glaze, made it seemed possible. Maybe it was that, or maybe just because this place was growing stale she wanted to believe that. There were already rumors spreading of the rest of water tribe settling near the south pole, the same people she got separated from when Koarsa's boat was wrecked in crossfire. Over there trade routes are wider and ships are stronger. Reliable transport was one of few things the fire nation had going for them.

Koarsa arched her back on the chair. "Udai," she called.

"Yes?"

Out of her breast pocket she pulled a bag of coins, threw them on the table. "I quit."

* * *

"You cannot go with us," Katar started.

"No, you can't," Udai agreed.

"Why?" She stepped into sunlight through the backdoor, bag over her shoulder, Katar and Udai followed behind.

"Well... you work here for one thing," Katar said.

He watched her pass sobered up Han, who was working on his pair of ostrich-horses, strapping them to a cart in with respect for the animals. The cart carried cabbages now, which were huddled at the back. Not a meaty cover, but it will suffice.

"The place did just fine before I got here." She threw her bag near Kai who was sitting in the cart.

"That's not what i meant," Katar said.

"And he is a criminal. He's not safe to be around," Udai chimed in and she burst out laughing at them. "How will I tend the shop and this tavern?"

"There is enough space to combine the two." The offer consumed Udai for a minute.

Katar looked up at Kai for conformation on his position, but he nodded in agreement instead. He wanted her to come. Still, Katar protested, "You can't go."

"I'm paying half the price here. So, put your big girl pants on and get in the car."

Argument-less, he complied, unwillingly following her up, but was stopped by Han's outstretched hand. "Whoa! We can't have the front seat, you two"-his finger flicked between him and Kai-"have to go undel. Come," he waved his hand and began walking.

Kai jumped down after him and immediately regretted that decision. Bent down and took a solid breather. Noon's sun was hitting the ground hard and he rose some dust from the ground, caught a few particles with his pained breaths, coughed a few times before standing straight. Tears in his eyes, he soldiered on.

Han led them to the side of a cart and punched on its wooden wall. A plank of wood spun, revealing a dark gap between two levels of the floor of the car.

The plank closed shut behind them and they were left in near darkness. Light seeped inside, falling through cracks in wood and spaces between the planks of the floor, which offered very limited field of view.

"You two a-right in there?" Han asked, his drunken lisp almost gone or almost controlled. "Don't answer that. Soldiers on't take kindly to talking carriages," he explained and whipped the rains.

A small tug marked a start of their journey, it pulled on them, their backs slid against a rough surface. After a few turns in their slow voyage, they landed back on the main road. Unlike before, it rumbled with people, their voices and footsteps were falling on it and spreading outside, into houses and small pathways. They heard a cheer coming from the tavern as they passed it, but the voices from the crowd didn't seem to die out. There was a lot of life for a place which Katar mistook for being secluded.

Wheels spun slow and the steady rhythm kept it calm, but the constant rustle of feet and wheels pulled dust from the ground, which, much like light, found a way inside. It filled their small chamber, crawled all around it. It rose up Katar's nose with a funny feeling and filled his lungs with heavy soil. He squeezed his nose, brushed the walls of it against one another. A trick, he learned from his father, that used to stop him from sneezing, and it worked wonders here, but only for him.

Kai exploded beside him. Then he slapped a hand to his mouth, as if to stop a fleeing sound.

"Mommy! Mommy! That carriage just sneezed!" a young voice came from outside.

"Of course it did, dear."


	4. A hunter, a healer and a fool pt 3

Air. Water. Earth ...

Peace didn't last long. Only eight years after the death of Avatar Rinzen, Wei state and it's capital Taku has split from the earth kingdom.

The next Avatar was to be an waterbender, but, for whatever reason, Avatar Rohan, an earthbender, took his place in the succession without a chance for a Water tribe avatar.

The world is never easy on the avatar and it wasn't this time. Though his efforts were true, his early death caused the splitting of the Water tribe.

Now, Wei state rages war against the Firenation and it's bordering colony. Fighting has been going on for months, but the front, dubbed "the wall", hasn't moved since and naval warfare's only successful attacks seem to be on Water tribe's refugee ships looking to settle.

Without an Avatar in sight for at least fourteen years, the world easily pushes itself into greater and greater chaos.

* * *

Katar took a deep breath and that was his first mistake. With sound dissipating and eyes closed, he couldn't help but take control of it. Pushing air in and out; playing with it, trying to catch its inner rhythm; a thing, he was thought, everything has. But even if he did find it, he knew he couldn't consciously let go. Something from within made him clasp on it, lock it in control.

He refocused his attention, pressed the tips of his thumbs into the palm side of the index fingers, then released the pressure. He felt his hands resting on his lap, though he was thought not to. A breeze moved into the room and he heard it, felt it, smelled its chilling freshness. Wasn't supposed to, though. But how? he thought, these things are impossible to ignore! But he wasn't supposed to think now either, so he sneered at himself.

"Don't beat yourself over it," came Hai-Fu's voice from the left, "That's a thought."

Katar snickered.

"That's a thought, too." He let Katar calm himself. Focus. "Whenever you're ready," he calmly said.

He sat there for a while, just breathing and focusing on nothing else but that. He watched it, guided it as it slowly settled. The thought arose that he's been sitting here too long, but he shut the door to that thought and finally opened his eyes.

Before him sat a glass bath filled with water. Water, clearer even then the glass that contained it, was moving. It rippled. Rapidly, clusters of it would form, rise above the rest, shimmer in his eye and collapse, disappear as quickly as they rose. Revealing parts of a painting bellow that they had covered.

The effect was hypnotic. The way it moved, the way it bent and distorted a picture of two Koi fish, one white with a black spot and one black with a white spot, chasing each other's tail. The image was still, common sense told him that much, but beneath the water, beneath its ripples, he saw otherwise. A fin would disappear and swim back out from under its belly; a whisker would bend as if affected by a current. And the more he looked at it the more of that he saw. A tail would swivel, a mouth would move open and close back until, the fishes themselves broke from the static picture and swam! They actually began to chase each other, moving in circles, ovals, patterns of eight and so on. There seemed to be no end to those, to that dynamic and it held him mesmerized.

He stood, following them when they began to drift away. His walk turned brisk, then even quicker and soon he was sprinting, chasing them to the line, where he stopped and let them away.

Before him the sea laid separated and restless. Split in two conflicting sides: a side of light, where waters that splashed were clear, with sure transparency almost to the bottom, and a side that has gone significantly darker over time, where you could not see more than a few feet down anymore.

He was not in those waters. But even on the beach he was wary of crossing the line where the seas collided. Nothing good ever came from that, he thought as a platform began lifting him up, gave him a better overview of the seas. As far as he could see, the split was definite. It pierced the eye, how distinct these sides were, how they did not mix but raged against each other. And looking from high above he felt unease rise, stomach twirl, fingers shake. In his palm heat began to rise, sting, like it did then that scar was fresh.

"Jump," a voice from behind soothed.

Katar turned to meet the voice and saw that figure from before, standing still. The eyes beaming hate at him. His body froze again; as if blood has clotted in his veins. The figure raised its hand and Katar whole rose with it. Feet loosely dangled above the ground, not controlled by that entity, its tight control concentrated above - his stomach, chest, arms; his contorted back.

He could still move his head though, so he could notice that his hand, that the back of Katar's hand was glimmering. Shinning a dozen different colors a second, shifting from one hue to the next rapidly. Oh, he realized, so that's what this is. But the realization brought him no control; his mouth was shut tightly and he could not utter the words that would break him free. With quick ease, the figure pushed and Katar was sent over the edge and into the waters below.

"Look who's up..." Koarsa said.

Katar found himself kneeling in a middle of cart with a thread of a bandage in his grip. The cloth was damp from sweat.

"You okay?" she asked, but he felt disdain in her voice. Like she was obliged to ask.

He sat down, took a moment to gather. The cart was cautiously pulling through the street, passing surprisingly large number of pedestrians on it, who all seemed to enjoy the coming of a calm evening. He thrashed his head and let hair loose from behind his ears, hid his face away from peering pedestrians. Then, he looked at his arm, at the loose cloth covering the palm and at the darkened skin hiding between the folds. "I am aware," he mumbled and fell at ease a second later.

His dreams were getting weirder day by day, he noticed that earlier, but this one he found scary. Skin crawlingly so. This one wasn't just some jumbled mess that dreams often were, this one darkened his memory. It took the truth and threatened to ruin it, change its meaning.

He remembered now, sitting there for hours, staring at that bowl of water and that painting of fish below and nothing happened! Yet, just now those fish broke from the painting and swam away. This. This threatened to be something else. A clash of memory and fantasy in his already conjoined mind. And this wasn't the first time something like this had happened, not the first time his mind found a way to fight itself.

Katar caught Koarsa staring at him, guess she really needed an answer. "Yeah," he said, "I'm fine," then pulled attention away from himself: "Where are we?"

"Near our first stop," she said. "We decided to set up a camp."

Kai was mumbling beside him. Head overboard, he was talking to someone on the street. Further up the cart, Han was sliding from side to side, having trouble relaxing his butt down on hard wood of his seat. All around the amount of people seemed to grow in strides and that had him curious, but wary. "What's up with all the commotion?" He looked at Koarsa, who was sitting in opposition to him. Falling sun blinked in and out between strands of her loose, curly hair.

She dashed her lip to the side, seemed pained to bother answering. "People talk of a festival coming to town."

"A festival?"

"For lady Vimala. It lasts-"

"Three days?!" Kai exploded beside him, head still overboard. "That's way too much!" Subject of both conversations seemed to be the same. "What do you even do for three days straight?" he asked before his excitement died down. Katar listened in to them for a while, but the girl Kai was talking to was reserved in her manner. He could barely make out much of anything except for a mention of some water custom.

"Why the wall?" Koarsa pulled his attention away.

"Huh?" he pretended. He drew his hand over the shoulder, clasped the charred sword handle and it neatly folded into his hand and into what was underneath those bandages. Safe. He let his hand fall loosely.

"Why do you need to go over the wall?" she asked again.

It seemed too late to ask the question, his answer couldn't be more than just trivial now. "You know i'm a criminal, right?" He asked her while trying to keep his voice down. She pulled her lip sideways again, annoyed. "You saw the poster. Why do even feel the need to ask?" he thought he finished, but she kept looking at him as if waiting for him to continue. "Look," he caved in,"with reputation like that, I can barely breathe within Wei state, nor could I in the rest of the earth nation. But in a fire nation, there is at least a chance for something calm and normal."

"Reputation..." She looked at him like she was about to spit in his face. "You have a way with words..." Instead of spitting she looked away, but only for a moment. "And you think you should be awarded such luxury? Reputation... Don't they put criminals away where you're from? Especially, if they cause a collapse of a whole nation."

"Then why did you choose to come with us?" He jumped a few lines, went to the point.

She sat silenced for a while, conjuring up an answer or maybe holding it back. He did not yet know. "I want to know," Koarsa said.

"Know what?"

"The type of person you are. The type that would kill the avatar."

He held onto that blow, decided to take it. Wouldn't do him any good to get into an argument that already felt tiresome. And he wasn't going to have it with some stranger. She made her position clear and that would have to do.

They stopped in a forest outside the town. The dimness of dusk was beginning to set in by then so they took the time to build a fire. A fire by a river, where waters were performing a tedious task of stripping away the earth from roots of trees. Exposing their long fingers, wave by wave and rush after rush for what what they were. Hooks to keep itself grounded, so the tree itself wasn't pulled away by that water or a strong rush of air anything else that threatened.

"Where's Han?" Kai asked and Katar looked away from the river.

"He probably ran into town to get his fill," Koarsa explained, not hiding her disdain.

"I'm going to look for him," Kai said, looking at Katar. More of a plea than a statement.

"You can go to town if you want," Katar said, seeing through his fake excitement to look for a grown up person. He didn't need another word and left but a dust cloud by the fire.

Koarsa looked at Katar stumped. "And you're just going to let him go?"

Calmly, he rolled up the right hand sleeve, began unwrapping its bandage. "I can not limit his choices and I can't just go out into a public venue like that." A cloth dropped from his hand, dark edges of a scar on his palm gathered light from a fire. It was healed as well as it could be, but a glance at that contorted palm and he could recall the pain as if it just happened. He redressed it with a washed bandage, adding a tight knot at the end. Looked up from it. Koarsa seemed just about done looking for words of protest. "That is why there will be a spirit looking out for him." He pulled out a mask, brushed its face with his clothed hand.

He found he could trust Kai's judgment on people. He seemed to have an instinct about them. It was the time to know how right he was this time. "You coming?" he asked Koarsa.


	5. A hunter, a healer and a fool pt 4

Koarsa passed a group of onlookers gathered around a match of coconut shell game and shuddered at the thought. No more than one gamble at the time, she reminded herself. Peach colored paper lanterns hanging above lit up the cheerful smiles on a busy street as they-her, Kai and masked Katar-strolled through the street, looking for something that would catch the eye. But the only thing that caught any eye was lilies. Red-white lilies, which dominated this town like it was weed. By every shop, every house, every corner there was at least a bunch of them. All of which radiated under rosy light.

"Hello, mysterious spirit," a voice came from aside and stopped their stride. The woman comfortably swam in a long blue robe, hands by her waist, tucked into the sleeve cuffs. She leaned gently forwards, pulled out her open palm and glided it over a small cart on wheels before her and said: "Care for a reading?" As she calmly stood straight she caught a silvery strand of hair that managed to fall of her bun hair-do and tucked it neatly behind her ear.

The cart's levels were neatly divided by their contents, raging from from minuscule pins and unrefined crystals below to an array of flowers above.

"I don't believe in fate," Katar's suppressed voice came from behind the mask.

"Strange for a spirit, to not put trust in fate. I do not read one's future, however." The woman kept a stoic look on her face. Whether it was just an act or not, it was too hard to tell. "I read one's past."

"And what use does that give?" Koarsa burst the words out, barely holding her laughter.

She glared at Koarsa, looked her over and away. "You cannot firmly step into the future without a deep understanding of your past." The woman almost choked on disdain for Koarsa. "Offering a fresh perspective on one's choices could be enlightening." She dropped another glance at Koarsa and rolled her eyes away. "If it's not too late to change, of course..."

 _Ugh! What a harpy!_

"I'll bite," Kai said. "What's the catch?"

"Just the price of admission."

"Kai!" Katar pulled him back a step. "What are you doing?"

"Spending MY money," he stated simply while the woman watched intently, scrutinizing them both.

"And what if she's a fraud?"

"Then you'll know after. Besides, it's only ten coins."

"I'll give you a discount for your attitude, young man," the lady said from afar.

"See? Now we'd be fools not to do it!"

She couldn't see Katar's face through the mask as it followed Kai strolling forward, but she knew the look he wore underneath. It was the same dumbfounded look she wore that moment herself.

"Now. How do we do this?"

"First, you pay, young man."

"Oh. Right." He threw an edge of his shirt up and sunk his hand in a pocket before pulling it out with a small bag. Koarsa couldn't help but notice a mark above his scrawny hip before the cloth fell down. She looked at an angle and couldn't see all of it, but she knew that sign. A circle, with a black side and a white side chasing each other. There was a dot of opposing color in each of them.

A winner's look lit up the woman's face, but she quickly suppressed it. "Now you pick an item from the cart. Only one, so choose carefully."

Kai bent down, rummaged through a third level down of the cart and pulled out a blocky-looking, yet scaly object and handed it to the lady. She examined it for a moment, spinning it slowly with her fingers before dropping a look at Kai.

"Do you have any brothers or sisters, child? A twin, maybe?"

The question stunned Kai, made him amiss for a second. "No, not really," he said, but he wasn't a good liar.

"The reason I ask is that, this object - is a part of two." She lowered her other hand and pulled up a similar piece next to Kai's chosen one. "Out of this whole stand, these are the only ones that connect." She pushed the pieces together and they fit neatly into each other. "Because they are not different, they are a part of two. One cannot be whole by itself..."

The woman went on for quite a while, spouting supposedly mind altering teachings while saying nothing of actual substance. But Koarsa's mind kept on that mark. It seemed significant, she saw it before,. Three times to be exact: once, when she was still a child she saw it split between two koi fish circling each other in warm pond waters of a spiritual oasis; and the other two were worn by her friends: Nanuq and Cikuq. Twins, who both had that same mark on their collarbones. A mark of a brother they called it. Thought to be only worn by twins.

 _Could she know all this?_ Koarsa wondered.

"...to find someone," teller's voice came back into her awareness. It seemed to have captivated Kai completely, "who would hold you back or propel you further then it's needed. Someone to push when you pull and pull then you push..."

Push and pull... The words were a revelation! Those were the names of the koi fish in the pond! The lady couldn't even bother to cover her scam properly. She dropped a heated glance at Katar and his posture seemed to agree with her.

"...to find balance with that person, should be-" Simultaneously, they grabbed Kai by the shoulders and dragged him away before the woman could finish.

"Hey!" Kai protested. "I was listening to that!"

"Yeah, well now you're not," Koarsa said.

"Guys, come on... I paid for that!"

"She's scamming you, Kai."

"I know."

"What?!" They jumped at him.

"I know she's lying. I mean, look at her... I don't care, it's my money."

Koarsa's mind was thrown into stasis from that. Held there by only one word: Why?

Not waiting long after that, the white mask clamped back on Kai's shoulder, began dragging again. "Then pay me and I'll soothe you with that kind of blather every night."

* * *

Tightly gripping his wallet, Han pushed through the horde. The crowd, as dense as his uncombed hair, made it nearly impossible to get through, but he brushed forth, eyeing for a sign, any indication of an inn he gathered was nearby. A pack of firecrackers went off on the ground near him, scared the spirits out of one man in the crowd. The man screamed so loudly you'd think he was a countess seeing a spider-scorpion for the first time. Han covered his ear from the sound, but it was too late. It already rang in his head like a wide bell. Disappearing slowly and leaving a faint shrill.

His eye caught it though. Through that distraction and the movement of people's heads he saw it. A bar, right up front. Two storeys and a balcony. Up there the costumers laughed. They were smoking and midway through the bottle.

He passed an annoying announcer, a band and some dancers all waiting to perform. He couldn't care les, his destination was set.

In the inn he found every seat to be taken. Decided to stand by the counter, where smoke hung loosely in the air. Not that he'd want to sit now, resting on his elbows was more than enough. The road was on the long-side and wasn't really close to the endpoint. A little movement below the waist would revive him a bit, before his drink of choice began its destructive work. Speaking of which...

"And fill this as well," he said, holding his flask out to the bartender after he tasted a reasonably numbing brew. With a distinctly smug look, which made him doubt her professional sensibilities, the bartender did the task.

Air of celebration was widespread over the town and this place was no exception. Small circles of heads in the bar enjoyed themselves and both floors of this bar did so loudly. Food and drinks were passed between the floors, sometimes even through the railing, if possible. Most were having a good time and spirits were kept high, but even that couldn't hold for long. Eventually, thoughts on Queen Guifei were shared and the rumors coming from the wall, tarnishing their joy. But an explosion of laughter form the other side of the room cleared their thoughts and the mood rose up again.

He couldn't help but feel out of place. Thoughts of celebration were in direct conflict with Han's natural state. They kept his mind active and his eyes wondering, until they landed on one subject. A young man, heavily built and bald. Everything about him, from his wide posture to his sleeveless shirt, made a stand. He saw a scar running from below his left cheekbone all the way to the middle of his neck and his verdant eyes stared with intensity he could not pin down just yet. The image had force to it, that was easy to admit. But it felt off to him. Something was amiss with that image and now he had to figure it out.

The young man was tapping with his prosthetic, earthbent fingers-right hand: pointing, middle and thumb-on a poster before him. Poured the last drops of his drink down his throat. Probably scotch. Acts like this one always went for scotch. An easy choice. Easy one to bluff through too, but not when you take it in such big gulps.

Still, Han didn't feel comfortable looking at the guy. Something else. Han's phoniness came through his tongue. After all, the kids were paying for his drinks tonight. But him? He seemed like a snake, pretending to be venomous with its aggressive coloring, loud hissing and a ready stance, yet, one would be hard pressed to play around with it.

Suddenly, the man lifted his gaze and their eyes met. Han quickly darted his own away, hoping he would think nothing of it. Uneasy minute passed as Han tried to look anywhere but at the man. Catching a few repulsed looks towards him. When he finally returned his gaze, the man was gone. And the poster he was looking at was gone too. Han had a peak at it before he was forced to look away. The artist wasn't worth much of anything, a poor man's Zhong Yu. But the face that was drawn on it was more important and that he identified fast. Didn't even had to guess.

Han planned to drink and he was still going to. Now he'll just do so faster.

* * *

Still lit by those same peachy lights, the street didn't seem to change. Only its people shuffled from one attraction to the next. Two rows of glamor and enchantment lined along each side of the road that was this whole town, yet it failed to hold the Koarsa's or the others's attentions. So it wasn't that surprising that they quickly made their way to the biggest attraction of the night.

On a small, make-shift stage, a loud, but not shouty, speaker entertained his audience. He threw his wit and sharp commentary on various topics at a mass in front of him, not shying from opportunities to take a few swings at the people and then pulling away before his words caused harm to their egos. A band behind him looked on, enjoying his performance with certain intensity. Conscious of being watched, waiting with silent mutters for their queue.

"I think I'm done for the night," Katar said.

"Sure," Kai agreed. He agreed to almost any idea this night or maybe that was always the case.

"But it's still early." Koarsa eyeballed him, but failed to read anything from behind the mask.

"I'm just a bit tired... Besides, nobody's watching our stuff, as hidden as it is," he said and began to shuffle slowly away without any proper permission.

"Wait." Koarsa pulled him to the side. "What are you doing?" She kept her voice low.

He meandered for a minute, then: "Look. I can't just hang around dozens of people, mask or not. That's one of the reasons we travel at night. It's not safe for me here."

"And what of him?" She pointed at oblivious Kai.

"He can handle himself, he can do what he wants."

"Like yesterday?" He can't be serious, she thought, but his tone said otherwise.

"That... that was different."

"Somebody has to watch him."

"I told you, I can't limit his choices." Again, that spineless phrase. How easy it was for something like this to grow from an annoyance to an issue.

"But somebody has to. That's a mighty thing to ask someone who's almost a stranger to you."

"I'm not asking anything. He knows how to take care of himself."

She felt like repeating the obvious a third time, but it seemed that Katar was as deaf today as he was blind yesterday. "Fine." She watched him leave.

A pack of firecrackers went off somewhere to the right. Hellishly high-pitched scream came from the same direction, causing more laughter than ruckus.

"Don't mind that," the announcer swiftly chimed in. "It's just elite fire nation soldiers practicing their new techniques." Crowd had a laugh as an empty circle filled with people again. "Tonight," he continued. The musicians beside tensed up as they waited for eventual end of his speech, "and tomorrow, and tomorrow, we celebrate Lady Vimala." He looked at a red-white lillie in his hand. A beautifully simple looking thing. "Maybe she'll show her legendary beautiful self to us on the winter solstice, maybe not. That is two days away and it all depends on us." Even though she was steps away from the audience, she felt it's warmth and easy unrest that just gave rise in some areas. "But before we can wash away our misdeeds in our lady's beloved river, but first we must. Make. Them surface!"

The band behind him hit the improvised stage floor running with a fast and upbeat tune. The dancers beside them began their performances, If you could call those that. There was no real choreography, just people trying their hardest not to hit each other, which was an open invitation to the crowd, which quickly caught on.

"You wanna dance?" Kai asked.

The question stumped her and she couldn't offer anything more than an awkward, "Um... sure?" Not a moment after, he grabbed her by the hand and began pulling her through the audience and into the chaos inside. To late to say no, it seemed.

The music grew louder and so did her fears of looking completely ridiculous dancing with this kid, who still thought of himself as so damn cute. For a second he seemed boneless. Flailing his limbs around like he was kelp in a current and no boundary. He lashed his way back and forth, to the side and back again, frequently crashing into those around him with no remorse. Naturally, it didn't take long for him to draw attention. With murmur and caged laughter, mob malevolently cheered him on, but it only fuelled his enthusiasm. Made him "dance" even harder. An arctic quadopus thrown on ice didn't look so absurd as he did, rag-dolling his way above the waist.

Koarsa didn't know where to hide herself, were to run. He would obviously follow. She had to suffer this one through. But as he continued, a strange thing happened. A mocking tone of the crowd around them began to shift. Bullies were only the first ones to respond. Something made him win the rest of the audience. And it surely wasn't his horrible, horrible dance. Something made her do the same, let that thought go and follow Kai's lead.

When she did so, she relaxed. And when the music stopped, it stopped too early. And when he bowed and ran, she was slow to notice.


	6. A hunter, a healer and a fool pt 5

Kai's short, damp hair slipped through a torn collar of his shirt. He handed it to Koarsa briefly, while he looked for a way into the new one he bought. The moon was high above them. Cool air breezed by as the two of them walked.

"Did you really need to buy two more?" Koarsa asked.

He gave a sheepish smile, said, "No, not really." His hands slipped inside the cloth, but he found he had to wrestle to put it on. He bought it for looks, not necessarily for size. "I liked them," he put it too simply.

The festival was over, at least the general part of it. It was easy to assume for Koarsa that private celebrations will go far further into the night, but the parts that interested them have concluded and they decided to head back to their camp, weak flame of which she saw a little bit further. Katar, it seemed, wasn't good at keeping the fire strong.

She glanced at Kai. Even under moonlight she still found it. The mark of the brother, of which that fraud of a teller played off of tonight. Kai quickly covered it again, straightening his new clothing. A sleeveless light-green tunic, which ran deep below his waist and met in a triangle with a white outline strip.

"Why did you lie to the teller?" she asked him.

"Huh?" he delayed.

"About having no sisters or brothers. You lied."

"I didn't," he said looking down. His seemingly constant enthusiasm was gone.

"Why? You have the mark to prove it. It's a dead giveaway to some people."

"Oh..." He scratched his arm distractedly. "You know of that."

"M-hm," she nodded. "So, a brother, a sister?"

"A sister."

She waited for him to say more, he didn't. He just silently drew distance between them. "A sister..." she said and he was spooked by that. "What? Is something wrong?"

"No. Nothing," he muttered, fell silent again. Their camp drew closer, dim light from the fire showed the way and they walked the path silently for a while, until he said: "Didn't get a chance to know her..." She noted how carefully he spoke now, felt like he had his fingers under a blade waiting to drop. "I survived... she didn't." That explained most of it to her: the sudden distancing, nervousness... but before she could properly apologize for intruding so carelessly he burst out laughing. High-pitched and cracking.

"What? What is it?" she asked as the distance between them lessened.

"Nothing." he smiled at her, relaxed. "You don't know."

"Don't know what?"

"Doesn't matter. You don't know."

"No," she said. "Now I have to know." She kept being cheeky. He silently declined to answer and she decided not to push. Then something stranger caught her eye. A few steps away from the fire Katar was bending. "I didn't know you're a water bender," she said to Katar.

She caught him off guard and he almost jumped, a ball of water he tried to raise like an amateur fell back inside. His swords laid beside almost fizzled out fire, leaving his contrasted figure by the river. "There isn't that much to say about it," he said, but seemed guilty, seemed caught in something wrong," when you're not that good. Master Hai-fu," he was forced to continue. He tried to pull more water out the river, his form was terrible, "used to tell me that, everything has its inner rhythm. I just don't seem to find it." The ball burst like the one before.

"Inner rhythm, you say..." She took a few steps towards him. "Well, you rush yours then. You start from zero." She bent some water towards her, keeping inmotion with the fluid. "And you build up speed, action."

"Guys?" Kai tried to intrude.

She was showing off now, forming the ball into a "U" shape over her shoulders. Waves rippled throughout with glisten from the moonlight.

"You cannot force it, like you do and you can't stop its flow either."

"Guys?" Kai called again. "You hear that?" but she kept her attention on Katar.

"Because when you do," she froze and her water splashed to the ground, "it stops as well." These were basic teachings. Every child, even nonbenders, were thought this. "You're not from the water tribe. I'd know you if you were. How can you do ANY of this?" Koarsa stepped closer, so she could see his reaction better in the low light.

"And guys?!" Kai pulled their attention away before Katar would have to answer. "Why are you sinking?"

They looked down. Their feet were slowly pushing underground while gravel silently rustled away, leaving gaps of air around their legs. These gaps, it seemed, were designed so nobody would notice themselves being slowly dragged down. And the moment they noticed them Katar and Koarsa suddenly plunged down and the gaps shut, trapping them. Everything from waist down, including their hands, was stuck in the ground. She looked at Kai, he was in the same position, struggling to break free.

 _But he is an earthbender_ , she thought, _he should be able to easily escape. Somebody else was here. Another earthbender._

The bushes rustled and a figure emerged. It brushed against the leaves with his masculine frame, took its time walking to the faint fireplace, picking up a still burning piece of wood and walking up to the first in the lineup.

Wrestling with the ground, Kai seemed furious and when the figure lit up his face, she found it to be true. Calmly, the figure looked at him, then shifted slightly to a piece of paper in it's hand, then back at him again and just moved on to the other two.

"Let me go! Hey! Where are you going? Hey-" The figure pushed its hand and Kai drove to the edge of the camp like he was on rails.

The man walked right passed Koarsa and to Katar, lit up his face, checked the paper. He crouched down to Katar, real close, checked the paper again and grinned. Only that grin, a scar right under it and his green eyes showed from the flicker of the flame. The rest of his imposing figure remained mostly hidden, only its edges were lit up by the flame and the moon.

The man stood, paced slowly and Katar was forced to follow at a small distance. Sliding, like Kai, with a faint graveling of earth. But then, it stopped, and a blue-edged silhouette of a man looked back at her.

"Lady," the voice came low, "is everything okay? Are you hurt in any way?"

"Um... No." The manner in which he spoke stunned her almost as much as being called a lady did.

"I'm gravely sorry for having to do all this, for being forced to involve you in all this... But why would you be around such people... such... scum? Who can't even pass a peaceful town without causing a ruckus." He imitated spitting on the ground in disgust.

"Hey!" Kai felt offended.

"There's still a life for you. You don't have to lower yourself-"He accented the word by dipping his hand and Katar sank to his chest accordingly,"-to the likes of him. There is a way out of this for you. We could-"

"Is this guy serious?" Kai asked.

"If you don't shut your air hole in the next three seconds," he exploded on Kai, pointing the finger, "your next meal will be your teeth!" He kept pointing for quite a while, his heavy frame bobbed up and down as he breathed heavily.

Suddenly, a fireball came from behind a tree, heading straight for the man. He blocked it easily, looked where it came from and found nobody there. With a gust of wind a shadow passed Koarsa in fast footsteps and leapt towards the young man. There was a heavy thud, then another one with two simultaneously moans as both bodies fell to the ground.

"Go!" Han ordered, rolling dizzily from side to side.

Quickly, Kai broke from the ground, rescued the others. Katar and Koarsa rapidly threw everyone's belongings to the cart. Han crawled over to the man to buy some more time, deliver some well needed punches, but Kai soon intruded. He began pulling Han back to the cart, but not before adding some kicks himself.

The rains were whipped and the cart hit the road along a river. The man, however, gave chase. He was fast even before he started catapulting himself with earthbending. Pushing himself closer and closer with every jump. On the third dash he caught up and landed at the back of the cart, but his feet fell in a pile of cabbages. He lost balance, rolled out with a spin which quickened once he hit the ground.

The moment of relief didn't last long. As soon as he stood he came at them with a different strategy. Suddenly, a column rumbled up before them, forcing Han to turn left. After the turn, another column popped and the cart jolted right. Then back to the left and to the right. All a distraction. A distraction from a wall, a monument that grew two storeys tall and blocked the path.

"Charge!" Kai shouted.

"What?!" others asked in unison.

"Just go for it!" he said and put his counter in action - turning a wall into a ramp.

The cart hit the incline and soon the wheels left the edge. As the cart slowly hinged the air, strange feeling in Koarsa's chest rose - whatever was inside didn't fall at the same speed as she did. And when the cart decided it was first to fall discomfort only intensified.

Koarsa saw a sleeping bag elevate, before she felt herself loose footing. A small gap edged its way between her and the cart and grew. Katar gripped a wooden barrier beside him tighter, running his overgrown nails into it and stared ahead with eyes as wide as tarsier-frog's. Kai seemed to be the only one to actually enjoyed this stunt. But that loose moment passed, the cart hit the road and everyone fell inside. One wheel began squeaking immediately, every round it made came with a sound.

Slowly, Koarsa felt her gravity finally begin to center, felt she could sit upright. She looked back at their pursuer who seemed to have stopped chasing and instead stood on Kai's ramp in a peculiar stance. "Is it over?" she wondered aloud.

"Damn it, Kai!" Han barked. "If your meat-headed ideas break my cart, I will drown you in that river! You got that, K-star!? If-"

A branch snapped loudly somewhere before them. They turned ahead. Another crack. And another. Again and again, the sounds piled on top each other into a longstanding crash.

"He's going to cut us off!" Katar shouted. He pointed towards a towering beam, its moonlit outline slowly fell for the road.

"He's dropping trees on us now?!" Kai blurted out.

"And this," Han, talking about the cart, "doesn't have another jump like that in it!"

Still, they charged ahead, hoping to make their way through before the timer, literally, runs down. But at this speed, the furthest way can hope to go is underneath the tree as it hits the ground. She looked around at others for ideas, but everyone was as tight and lost as she was.

Suddenly, Katar lit up. "Kai!" He called. "Columns! Under the tree!"

Kai considered it for a precious half a second, "I can't hold them both."

"One will be enough!" Katar assured.

Kai quickly shuffled to the side of the cart. The night was as clear as it could be, but the only thing he could judge the tree's position by was its constantly moving shadow. He waited and waited, as it slowly ran down until it was unmistakably and unavoidably before them. Only then he could surface his column.

The tree hit it hard and immediately started pivoting on it. Kai was straining, he was keeping the column strong enough to hold, but the tree trunk just kept on moving. It turned on Kai's column and the bottom of the tree ripped from the ground with a deafening crackle. The roots broke free and the tree just kept on going. Koarsa glanced upward. The tree hauled down to her, threatened to crush. Katar was wrong! One wasn't going to be enough. The tree was going to crush them and there is no way Kai can make another column.

Franticly, she looked around for a solution. A river ran beside the road, but there was nothing she could do in so little time. She closed her eyes, but couldn't help but listen. And then, amidst all the crashing and the hauling, and the turning she heard the ground rumble. She turned and it was Katar beside her, standing in very much the same stance that Kai was in, bending a column on the second side of the cart.

The beam hit it and the second pillar shattered, but luckily the tree bounced up. It ran up and there would have been enough time for them to pass under, but now it started to give chase with a heavy roll. It slipped of Kai's column, back end of it crashing to the ground.

"What now?" Kai asked.

The top end of the tree stopped moving up and with no wait began speeding down.

"We hope for the best..." Katar said.

"Like hell we do." Koarsa started pulling barrels of water from the nearby river. Forming it into a pillar underneath the tree. Froze it to ice in the hopes that that would stop it. Multiple cracks appeared instantly and it shattered not a second after. It shattered and the beam started moving again, but they were already too far away for it to matter.

They took a breather. Let the pressure off and then looked back again. Searched for their new enemy. He was standing on a torn down tree, then began pacing angrily atop it. He walked over to Kai's column and smashed it to pieces in an anger fit. It was over.

"Finally! That bald bastard gave up," Kai said and let himself fall backwards into a cart.

"Bald bastard?!" Katar tried to withhold his smirk.

"I don't care. My head's too full to think of anything better."

"I have a feeling, you'll get your chance."


	7. Ep 2: The Wall

To the calm of the forest chaos rode in; a ruckus from far away of grunts by some tired animals and of beating wheels, and of the sounds of the particular one up front and left of Han. Every turn, every single rotation that wheel made came with a grilling creak or a biting shrill, a cut to the ear. It was a constant assault the passengers had grown to expect by now and, if for some unexplained reason, that sound grew silent or skipped beat, or even stopped, they could remain sure that that was only temporary. The wheel was going to sing it's tune and the shrills were going to play to the monotone green of the forest around.

That came to be the underlining tone of this morning; an eerie irritance in the land of lush, yet dull and endless. Since they've left this morning all they saw was this forest, which went on and on through seemingly endless supply of crooked roads, intersections and smaller, slower paths, where even attempting to run those carelessly would land you in a tied bag of trouble. These roads where thin, which was what they wanted, but the sounds and tedium around didn't help. It only worked to build tension within oneself, make one agitated, desperate for something to break up this irritated monotony and that soon came.

The cart stopped and so did those drilling strings. The group took a moment to recover, enjoyed the small sounds of breeze while they lasted.

"Why are we stopping?" Katar eventually asked.

"The road is cut off," Han answered. A long way away a tree laid across the road.

"Strange," Koarsa said, "there was no storm yesterday, for it to be torn down like that."

"Could it be him?" Kai asked.

"The guy from yesterday? Likely not. But this doesn't have to be from a recent storm either. I'm keeping off the main roads, these aren't traveled as much. Most people wouldn't bother moving it away."

"And I don't think we will either," Katar said, pointing at another path leading down a similar direction. "What about that road? It seems like it is a way around."

"I guess that could work."

Han whipped his rains and their short break from the creaking wheel was over. Everyone went back into their spots, doing the same nothings as before. Only Kai seemed actually busy, working on something that brought him efficient calmness. He smashed his hand down and then slowly pulled it up, carefully hiding whatever he did with his other hand. Koarsa heard sand rustle, saw dust gather from the floor, but she couldn't tell what he was doing. Only saw him smile a little more with each attempt, until eventually...

"Hey, guys!" he called. "Look what I can do." He smashed his open palm down and slowly pulled it up while waggling his fingers with deliberate motion. Sand began to gather under them; slowly taking form of a small statue. It wasn't very detailed, but she could make out it having its arms folded and a protrusion over its left shoulder-a sword, she guessed.

"Is that... me?" Katar asked.

"Yup."

"Well," Katar continued, "that's actually pretty-"

"Terrifying." Koarsa took a closer look. "What's wrong with that face?" It looked like it was mushed together out of three or more and none of them would look good on their own.

"Ugh! Leave it to you to ruin all the fun..." he squashed it, his mood uncontested.

She looked at them both, sitting there comfortably by each other and found that hard to believe. A killer and a kid, one beside the other. Something was off, she wasn't getting the whole picture and the thought kept grinding at her as much as that wheel that played in the background. Building, coming stronger each round, until the thought forced itself out.

"So... Kai," she started.

"Yeah?" He was still sitting there, fiddling with sand.

"How long you and Katar are traveling together?"

"I don't know... maybe four months now."

"And the idea doesn't scare you?" That got Katar's attention, but he didn't say anything like she guessed he wouldn't. That made her smirk.

"Why would it?"

"Well, the bounty." Still Katar remained silent.

"What of it?" Kai didn't seem to mind.

"The bounty is for murder."

"Where are you going with this?" Katar finally asked and she left his question unanswered.

Kai looked at her strangely. "Do you think I can cash him in, break him out? We could use the money," he laughed, looking away.

"What are you getting at?" Katar spoke more harshly now. She noticed his bandaged right arm, it shook tightly, but it was not clenched in anger.

"What I'm getting at, is that there's things that are happening around me that I don't-"

"Hello, there," a voice came from somewhere and sharply cut the conversation off.

Damn it, Koarsa cursed behind closed lips. Every time I get a little closer...

The voice that did the job wasn't adult, but it was not puerile either. What it was though, it was confident. Confident enough to cut through their riling up exchange. They tried looking around as the cart slowed, but couldn't find its owner. "Up here," the voice came again and now they could add a face to it.

He was a slim boy, late teens, short hair, pointed chin and a handsome smile. Well, as far as she could tell. The boy happened to be hanging upside down from a tree. A rope was tied round one ankle; his other leg leaned loosely to the side. "Hey," he said and waved in his inverted way.

"Hi," Kai answered back.

"So," the boy nervously scratched his face, flicked something to the ground, "I'm in a bit of a pickle, as they say. Could you help me down?"

Kai slid down to the ground, Katar and Koarsa soon slowly followed and Han held ahead of the track in his cart.

"How did you end up... up there?" Koarsa asked.

"Well... that's a funny story."

"Oh, I'm sure it is..." Katar said, still agitated. He handed Kai his swords so he can cut the rope. He slung them over his shoulder. Too big, the bottom of the case pressed against the back of his knee.

"I was going to hunt in the woods this morning; that's my bow, by the way." He pointed to the ground. "I just walked my usual path, then, suddenly, this rope drags me up and leaves my hanging."

"That wasn't that funny," Katar said.

"Yeah? Well... it is what it is," he answered as Kai rose bending a column beneath himself. "I'm Wan, by the way," he said simply.

"Kai," Kai said when he rose to Wan's level. He swung the blades to his front, began pulling them out of the case, but then he stopped. "Do you hear that?"

Wan nervously glanced to the bushes, then back to Kai. "Hear what?"

"It's far away," Kai said and held still, listening and in a slow minute the 'far away' rushed closer. Coming like a wave through air, through trees, through vibrations of the ground.

Kai's legs began to quiver. His legs began to quiver and he didn't seem to know why or expect it to be so strong. His legs shook and then the column began to shake, and then the ground itself trembled terribly. A humongous earthquake rose up from nowhere and even the trees barely withstood it. Leaves popped off of them like scared away hair, branches broke off from the immense vibrations and fell to the dust.

Katar and Koarsa held on to the ground and they were relatively safe there, but Kai fell on his back and almost rolled of the pole. He clung to it and it seemed stable for a moment before the ground itself began to fail them, to crack. It ruptured rapidly, like it was barely an egg shell. Dust burst out of newly opened gaps and ran up Kai's pole which collapsed in heavy chunks and started falling. Kai tried jumping off when he came close to the ground, but the falling earth stove the ground in and he was sucked into the abyss.

The hole expanded quickly. Quickly, the opened cave below enveloped Katar and Koarsa into its depths as well.


	8. The wall pt2

"Why do you always rush?" Suluk drudged behind Koarsa, she had to pull him through the snow. Back in the north there was nothing but snow. "It's my job."

Koarsa smiled at him as she bent a hole before her feet. "I know," she said, but jumped inside the hole anyway. Down through the snow and ice she slid to the ground and when she landed Koarsa heard Suluk grunt frustratedly above. That made her grin.

"Hey," he said through some strange hollow rattling coming from above, "you forgot something."

She glanced up. The back end of the bucket was coming at her, she ducked to the side before it could hit her. It didn't crash, it was tied to a rope. She ran back to the bucket, peered at the perpetrator above. Suluk winked, guess that made them even.

"Watch the ice." She snatched the bucket and bent under the ice sheet. Before her the seabed laid bare and unknown. There was no water here, not in this particular place and not until the tide comes back. Ice, the ceiling of the sea, was pulled to the floor as the tide drove out and now it rested on it, leaving archways throughout it of various sizes.

Koarsa lit up a torch and the whole of the under-ice began to glow. Light ran down this temporary cave like a sound wave, revealing itself with an alluring azure glint. With this one light she saw everything here: spots were the ice rested on the seabed, length and curvy nature of the tunnels that ran between the ice slabs, last traces of sea water trickling and dripping from the cold ceiling, mounds of ant-crabs and the like fleeing from the light. One could spend hours down here, just taking it in, letting the chilling gusts pass and pass, but she had only minutes.

Quickly, she set the bucket down, grabbed the first mollusk and threw it in. Easy pickins is what they came here for - mollusks that lay exposed after the tide pulls out. There was plenty of them here, she got lucky. The bucket will be full this time.

Time passed fast while she worked, but she liked to imagine that it did so quicker above. She thought about him up there, looking around, growing nervous, pacing restlessly. Until...

"Koarsa?" Suluk's muddled voice came through the hole. "Koarsa, hurry it up." She knew that. "The ice is rising." She knew that too, water had already flooded her ankles. She was so close to full though; there's still time. "Koarsa?!" his voice cracked. The ice had risen more than a meter now. He called again. Useless. Suluk couldn't wait longer, he began pulling the ice looking for her, but he didn't knew where to look. The current may have dragged her away. There's no telling-

She burst from the snow before him. He fell on his back, she - on his chest and in his arms. Her newly made betrothal necklace remained firmly on her choker, she later checked.

"Oh, thank spirits!" He breathed deeply. "Thank spirits, you're okay..." he repeated and they laid there for a while. Began to laugh about it. He pulled the water out of her soaked clothes and hair, so she wouldn't feel cold.

When Koarsa woke, the earth still rumbled. Only now it was amplified, it was echoing heavily around the cave and around her skull. Sunlight wrestled down to her, but she doubted anyone could see her through all the dust. She could barely make out anything herself, only the soaked walls of the cave. Just how far had she fallen?

She didn't remember much of it, the fall and now she found out how incredibly fortunate she was. All she felt were cuts and bruises and not much more. When she moved, when she stood, she felt she was beaten up for sure, but there were no broken bones or serious cuts, or injury. It seemed impossible to be this lucky when you fall so far, yet here she was, standing in a cave and the thing that bothered her the most was the noise. The thunder of the earthquake still shaking the walls around.

She stepped into the dark and bumped into him, Katar. Rapidly, he turned and lashed at her. A wind current packed with bits of earth picked her up and in a flash she was lobbed onto a pile of debris in the darkness and left to stare at him in shock and pain.

It was hard to see into the dark, she only saw that he didn't stop. Katar just kept going, pummeling away, not at her, but just plain aimlessly. Throwing mad rushes of air, fire and stone at a non-existent legions of enemies before him. His eyes burned in blue fury and the palm of his hand glowed gold through a loose bandage.

Attacking blindly, bending multiple elements... _Just what was happening here?_ she wondered as he went on for quite a while. Then, as he seemed to grow exhausted, he stopped and she could hear how heavily he breathed with a weighted voice that was not his own or of any one person. Katar limped forward and collapsed. His body fell under sunlight that shined from above.

* * *

A chill ran up Kai's back and his feet were already freezing. It was only a matter of time until the cold migrated everywhere else. Curled up around _his_ swords he lied on the unwelcome floor and didn't feel like he could move from it. He could try to bend his way out of here, but when he was falling he lost all direction and the rest of the abyss he heard echoing down seemed barely a step away in this tar black cave.

It was a trap-the dark, and he knew it well, knew what to be afraid of while in it. To him it was always a prison with opened gates and nowhere to go, and this time was not exceptional. He got torn away from the sounds of the world outside, away from the play of sunlight, away from faces he knew he could trust and the thought made him crack where it mattered most.

His hands clutched the sword case closer, fingers followed the unruly surface of the burnt handles.

And he worked so hard. Tried, forced himself into situations. Pushed, how he pushed himself to ignore people's initial dismissal of him and wait for their true reactions. None of that mattered here. Fate has smacked him right back where he never wished to be and into a feeling he never wished to have. For the first time in over four months Kai was truly alone.

* * *

The Avatar's voice came like a ship through mist. A young voice, a familiar one. "Listen," he said. Katar couldn't see his face, did not see much of anything. The world before him presented itself through a thick cloth. "Not yet, but on the solstice" the voice said to Katar. Through the haze, he felt water stream around his lazily laid legs. Maybe they were drowning, he couldn't tell. The Avatar bent down to Katar, took his woozy bobble-head and Katar could only focus on the edge of his face: that sharp chin, green eye, the lip...

"The bridge will be short enough then." The Avatar's hand held Katar up. "Tomorrow, Katar. Tomorrow." The hand moved, it grabbed and yanked him down through water between his legs.

For a glimpse, he was back there, above the frothing battle of the oceans. Before him the far horizon laid bare and starless, consumed by the ever growing and ever falling tower of fire.

Katar jolted awake. With a big breath he inhaled a big gulp of cave dust; had to cough it out. Coughs echoed back and forth between sturdy slabs of wall, until it eventually died off. There was a circle of light around him, extending about two meters and no more.

Silence, then: "Hey," Koarsa's voice came from outside the circle, somewhere deeper in the cave.

"Hi." He tried to get up, but found that he couldn't. Not easily. "Why are my arms tied?" He tried to move them, separate them, but couldn't. "Koarsa?" No answer. "I need my arms, Koarsa. I need to see my arms."

"Why?"

Frustrated, he clambered onto his feet, took a step towards her voice.

"DON'T... come any closer," she said from shadow. He felt her voice quiver and now that quiver repeated away.

"You okay? I tried to direct our fall, but-"

"What was that?" She almost shouted. "Why did you hit me?"

"I ..." And then it came back to him. An episode surfaced through that muddy memory of his. "Koarsa... I didn't mean to, I... But you have nothing to worry about now, I have it under control."

"Have what under control?" That left him stuck. He couldn't come with a response fast enough. "Explain!"

"I can't."

"Why?"

"Just let me go." He said and that shut the questions he wasn't willing to answer for a while. During, the place came quiet, only a small river trickled somewhere in the background. It hummed through the silence with steady pace, eating away the earth and a path for itself. "Please, just my hands... And Kai. If he's okay..."

"No."

"Why not?!"

"Because there is a million things you have to explain! Starting with, how can a warm-skin like you bend multiple elements!? And that Avatary thing you do."

"Avatary?" the word pained Katar, "Just. Just let me go," he pleaded again.

"Why should I? You hit me!"

"But Kai-"

"He can handle himself."

His own words, Katar almost laughed. "He might have hurt during the fall and he cannot be alone. Now, please."

"No."

"Bleeding hog monkeys, Lady! What is your problem?!"

"Still no."

He looked away, bitterly considering it. Nothing much to consider, she had him in a corner. "Fine. But I tell you on the search." Katar turned his back to her voice and waited. She unbind the blue scarf from around his hands and tied it back around her torso where it originally was.

Quickly, he inspected his hands. "I am aware," he mumbled to himself and sighed in relief. The bandage around his palm came loose again, he quickly redressed it as tightly as he liked it and it was time to go.

Katar held his hand up, tried to softly push her away with his first step, but she sidestepped it.

* * *

Eventually, the rumble stopped. All laid still, only leaves still gracefully dove down. Wan still hung on a rope, only now he was hanging over a rift, a parting in the middle of the road.

Han leaned over the edge of his cart which stood over the edge of the gap. A hundred of dreadful thoughts ran through him as he waited for noise to die down down below. He waited out those heart-wrenching minutes and then he called her. He called down to her and then to others, but no one answered. Still, he called until that one time that he was interrupted.

"Mister," Wan said, "could you help me down?"

"Why don't you have one of your friends hiding in the bushes do it?" Immediately, they ran, two young men who laid in shrubbery this whole time, watching, waiting to pounce unsuspecting good-doers and most likely rob them.

Han turned, with his goal set: He had to find them.

"I can help you find them." Sharp kid, got Han's attention. "There's an entrance some way down the road. But you will miss it without me."

He didn't take much time to think about it. He pointed at the kid, with a promise of threat. "No tricks."

Wan held his palms up and open. "No tricks."


	9. The Wall pt3

"Bending," Katar started," is the hardest thing for me. It's not something I was born into and back before I was a bender-"

"What do you mean, before you were a bender!?" Katar had just begun and she already felt lost.

He sighed with frustration. "That's exactly what I meant."

"But how does that make sense? Isn't bending hereditary?"

"I don't know, okay? And I'm done tiring myself thinking about it." He almost shouted the words at her with intensity that didn't really fit him. Not by her eye, anyway. He didn't stop walking, didn't stop till it was too dark to see anything. Even small reflections on a river they followed were much of a guide anymore. "Let me try something."

She heard skin rustle against his clothes. Small currents of air pushed away. Not once she heard him sigh and try again. "Everything has its rhythm..." he whispered and then, he did it. Fire splashed from his hands and he was quick to catch it, hold on to it, unstable as it was. Katar breathed a fire into this cave and it grew and withered, lit up their close walls, the path beside the running stream.

"When I was twelve," he continued, with flame calming in his hand "I would... visit people houses. And in one of those homes," his finger twitched, and so did the flame it held, "I met the avatar."

* * *

"Thief!" The word bounced strongly between the wooden walls of a stockroom. Katar leaned back; his upper half emerged from behind an opened door of a cabinet like a curious catowl's head would around a corner.

"Thief!" the dark-haired boy cried again, he was panting angrily into a white training shirt. He seemed thirteen, maybe fourteen. Katar looked at him for a second. Another. Waiting. The boy was blocking the only way out. It was a fools mistake, to leave a door open like that. One, Katar felt, he was doomed to repeat.

The boy charged in, made Katar smirk - there were two fools in this room right now. Quickly, Katar dashed to the side, around a shelf rack splitting the room upright. The boy tried to catch - reached for him through the shelves; Katar ducked under those hands and flying bowls. He ran up the shallow stairs, paused by the door. By then only a pear and some shinny necklace stayed in his hands. He pulled one to his pocket, grabbed a bite of the other. Didn't chomp the pear, just held it in his teeth, looking down at the boy, seeing what he'll do.

"Come down here, you slimy skunk-ape!" The boy stomped ahead. Katar shut the door on him and ran.

Corridors were roomy, much more wider than he was used to. Usually, the places he sacked were tight, every room was next to or across another and every room had it's clear purpose. This one was different. This house was a square around a wide and plain yard, the purpose of which escaped him and didn't bother that it did. Every room opened into a square corridor, which opened into the yard. This wide place was more than enough for his small little body and his fast feet.

Katar dashed the corridor through, turned the corner and didn't stop. Before him, some lady walked in carrying a basket of wet towels. He threw himself to a wall, rolled on it with momentum and leapt off - so he didn't hit her, so he didn't stop. Another corner, another problem. An old man standing in a door, blocking his way out. Katar kept running. To stop now, to get caught now, he knew, was a fate worse than death! No kid and no blind gasbag was going to catch him. He ran towards the man and then lept to a room on his right.

A dining hall. Descent sized room: empty tables, empty benches. Where there's a dining hall - _there's a kitchen, where there's a kitchen - there's a back door,_ he thought quickly looking. On his left, a small kitchen - door closed. Locked, maybe, and no time to check if it was. But beside it there was a small window for collecting dishes, just his size.

Two steps forward and Katar was already running. He jumped, he squeezed, he shut his eyes, hoping not to hit the edges of that small window and he got lucky. He passed through untouched, deployed his landing gear, but his speed was too great for a small kitchen. Before his feet could touch the floor he crashed into a cabinet, broke his shoulder through an ornamented door. The cabinet tumbled, its upper doors jolted open and plates fell crashing around him. _They must be hearing that,_ Katar thought, but there was no worry - he was only two doors away from being home.

He scrambled up, ran the first door and stopped. There was that old man again, blocking his door. He was not looking anywhere with his blind, marble eyes, didn't say a thing; just stood there, stretched like a five point star. Behind him, a lovely green hill bathed in sunlight. Warm and almost glowing. Calling Katar out of that unlit two-door pantry with a blind geezer by the door.

The boy from before caught up to Katar from behind. He was panting into his training clothes still, this time from exhaustion. They'd cut him off, one from the back, the other from the front. One was fast and bitterly furious, the other - blind and as old as the moon. With options like these, this wasn't much of a gamble.

Katar bolted towards the man. Pulling all of his remaining strength down to his feet and ran, then fell backwards and slid. He aimed for the gap between his legs. He's small, he'll pass under. The floor was smooth, incredibly so for wood. He expected to feel it, expected it's pieces of it to chip off, get caught by his pants, his legs, his butt, but it simply didn't. It was like he was gliding on water.

Feet were quick to pass through, but then, the gate began to close. The old man was bending at his knees! He aimed for Katar while he was still under him. Sliding ahead, his speed decreasing, all Katar could think about was that wrinkly bottom pinning him down. He covered his face, cowering away from that view, from that thought. He could only wait now. Wait and hope his hope doesn't get squashed.

This time, though, he was lucky. He passed under and ran, shuddering, towards the hills, before the old man could crush him in more ways than one.

* * *

"Well?" Koarsa asked after a minute of silence.

"Well what?"

"Is that it?"

"Oh no... That damned bastard found me the next day."

* * *

Katar's back slammed against a wall. "Where's the necklace?!" The boy demanded. He was out of his training gear and in a more simple T-shirt and long pants combination. It would have been a modest look, if not for how clean they were."Where is it?"

"Get away from me." Katar tried to slip by him and run again, but the ground underneath shifted, it pulled and he got thrown back to a wall.

"Where is it?" He said, pinning him down with one hand. His furious eyes darting across Katar's face.

"I said get away!" Katar wasn't used to this. They always came with officials and to his mother. He would look down, apologise, play up-but not make up-the whole feeling guilty part, maybe pull a tear, if he was lucky. He'd give it back or work it off, of course, and that was it. At least, when it came to the damages. But this was too close, too personal. He had no sure way to handle it.

"Where is the necklace?" he repeated, threatening with a clenched fist.

"I sold it."

"What?!" A punch sunk in Katar's stomach. His mind flashed blank and when the colors came back they came back different, dimmer than before. He bent over the boys fist, but he was quick to straighten Katar. "What did you do?!"

"I sold it," he said between gasps for air.

"To who?"

Katar shied away from another fist, brushing against a wall. Dust rose from it, almost popped onto his clothes, but for the drapings he wore today it probably did more to wash than dirty them.

"To who?!" the boy was persistent.

"I ... uh..."

"Katar, lunch!" A woman's voiced sounded throughout the playground. Deep, but soft in too a familiar way. Terror struck Katar from hearing it. _No. Not now. Not here. Not while-_ and he saw that the boy had noticed. He noticed who Katar was more scared of than him.

"Is that... your mother?" He asked, not really needing an answer. "Well lets go talk to her." He yanked Katar forward.

"Hey, let go of me," Katar said, struggling against his firm grip.

"Why should I?"

He made them turn and pulled towards Katar's home door. Every step a rise in danger. _She cannot know of this. Not this, not again_. He imagined her, that look she'd undoubtedly give him and he'd fall to the depths again. And that would be just the beginning. _She cannot know!_

"I can give it back."

"You said you sold it." The boy knocked on the door.

"I lied." Katar said and listened for his mother inside, clashing the plates, coming towards the door in steady steps.

"Then bring it," he said, not letting go.

"I will.," he said and the boy puffed at him, dismissing. "I will! But she cannot know," he pleaded. Looked him in the eye for the first time and held it. He even made his pupils a little wider for effect; a trick he learned from some other kids in school, when his family could still afford it. Never worked that well on men or males in general.

She was there now, on the other side and Katar still looked at the boy. Begging. But he took long to think, too long to just stand there undecided and not say anything. Was he retarded? Katar quickly questioned. Or has he already decided to imprison him?

A door pulled open and a shirt crumpling fist turned into a pat on a shoulder.

"You don't have to knock, you can just-Oh..." She pulled the warmest smile her worn face could handle. "Who's your friend Katar?"

"Hello, missis ..."

"Meilin."

"I'm Rohan. Katar here," he slapped Katar's back just below a shoulder to seem friendly, but his hand hit heavily, "was just showing me around the neighborhood."

"Oh, well... Please, come in," she motioned.

Rohan pulled a disgustingly friendly smile, "Why thank you," he said and took a step inside, left Katar behind.

To call that lunch tense would be an understatement. Throughout the whole thing he kept an eye on Rohan, not saying a word. He just chomped his food begrudgingly loud, which caught a lot of strange looks from his mother. Rohan didn't seem to mind. That cursed imposter just smiled politely while his mother showered him with questions.

"You sure you don't want anything?"

"Oh no. I ate before I left home."

"And where is that?"

"On the upper side."

"Up the mountain?"

"Yes."

"And where did you meet?"

"I don't really know," Rohan said.

"Katar?" She peered at him, face full of suspicion. He halted midway through the meal, his cheeks full, lips wet from food. Can't speak with your mouthful, he remembered. And if you can't, then you don't have to. He went on eating.

"Oh we just stumbled into one another," Rohan slapped Katar's back again, "and I somehow ended up here. Strange how life brings you places you wouldn't think," he chuckled like a slimy politician.

"It is," she smiled, impressed. "It's beautiful up there in the morning," she looked off, reminiscing and Rohan nodded, confirming. "We used to live up there, you know... Is the garden by the fountain still there?"

"Oh, I wouldn't know. We just recently moved in. I didn't have time to check all places."

"Well, if you need a guide, Katar is certainly knows a lot of Taku."

"Oh, that he does." He slapped him again, same place three times in a row. This was no coincidence.

He felt heat there, rising up to his clothes and bouncing back. It began to itch, to crawl. To burrow. Rohan had irritated Katar's shoulder and now he really felt it. Reaching for the bowl was as bad as grinding against the floor. Pulling food close to his mouth meant more of the same. Even when he tried to remain still he still felt it, crawling up and down his shoulder like a swarm of red scorpion-ants.

He couldn't bare much more of this. That obscenely polite manner, Rohan not missing a chance to wax the sting zone every time the conversation merely hinted at them knowing each other. He could try to evade, but she is watching, suspicious. Gracious kids in neat clothes don't just hang around these parts and if she hadn't figured out why he is here by now, she will if he tries anything. He started devouring his food faster. Bearing through the burn of the shoulder, he wolfed it down in large uncomfortable chunks.

"I'm done," he marbled out eventually. "I'm going to take some stuff and go out again."

"Okay, honey. You know when to come home," she said, but the way she looked at him had him marked. She caught him. She knew. Yet, she didn't say anything. From that day Katar was forever grateful for letting him of this hook.

His room wasn't much to look at: a few books on anatomy, in poor condition, an open wardrobe with some clothes hanging on its door and a lantern stood out as things that had some actual use to them amidst the clutter of half-unpacked crusted boxes and torn papers, and Rohan didn't take the time to examine it much further. He grabbed Katar's scrawny shoulder and began squeezing it, pushing hard with his fingertips into the area he was preparing all lunch for that special tinge to pain.

"Okay, okay, okay." Katar wheezed, squirming away from his grip. Massaging his shoulder, he walked to his bed, searched under the sheets and pulled out a key.

"What's that for?" Rohan asked.

"It's a key. It opens locks." He said dryly hostile. "I locked it away, like everything I take," he quickly added.

"You mean steal."

"Yes," he said silently, trying to bring the volume of conversation down.

"Open the lock."

"The box is not here."

"Well, lets go then."

"You don't have to go, I can bring it to you."

"Lets go." He grabbed and pulled Katar ahead of him.

"You already know where I live,"-he continued as Rohan sprawled his frame, growing bigger, showing every bit he was taller, bigger, stronger than Katar-"you know my mom, there is nothing-"

"Lets. Go," he growled.

The prison walk was lengthy. Rohan clearly didn't expect the place to be this high up - all the way up to the edges of second of three rings of Taku, which divided the city. He almost seemed insulted by that, by how high up that place was, how close to his home. Right under his nose. At least the walk was long enough to torture the thief.

"We're here. You can let go of me now," pleaded the annoyed hostage and Rohan let go of his blue shoulder. He stepped inside an unkept backyard of his old home, buried his hand inside a crack in wall and after a quick minute of searching pulled out a padlocked metal box dulled by time. A picture of a magnificent dragonbird used to lay atop this box, with his wings spread proud it flew over a lush forest. Of that image only edges remained, only branches of a forest that was, hanging aimlessly with no core to cling to.

He outstretched his hand. "Would you? Please," he said, not hiding his irritation. Rohan had bullied the key to the lock away from him.

Katar opened the box, pulled out the necklace and closed it and hid it again. "Here," he said handing the jewelry back and began moving onto a walkway. "Now, we can never meet-" Rohan gripped him and sunk his fingers into Katar's blue shoulder. "Bleeding hog-monkeys! What more do you want?!" He pulled away, but Rohan quickly followed.

"Stealing from me wasn't the only thing you did. There are some cupboards that need fixing, some plates that need to be worked off."

* * *

Katar let his voice die in the long cave, even the echos. Only their steps and the flame sounded off between the wet slabs of earth. He was locked onto something ahead, eyes wondered, head followed the eyes. "Do you see that?" he asked rather meekly.

Koarsa looked where he looked, but there was nothing but darkness out there. Nothing to be seen, nothing to track as carefully as he did. "No. Is something there?"

"No," Katar said, "no there isn't," and exhaled with a harsh tremor. He walked, he looked to his bandaged palm and mumbled: "I am aware," quickly. Then he waited for something, but nothing seemed to happen, nothing changed and that had him shaken a touch. _Strange_ , Koarsa thought, _strange are his rituals, strange are the things he asks for. Strange is his whole demeanor._

When he noticed that Koarsa was looking at him, he straightened himself, looked on ahead again, continued: "So I worked. It didn't take long to work off the damage. But, for whatever reason, that wasn't enough for the Master. He offered me to work there."

"He just did that?"

"Well... he's... is a bit curved in thought-"

"To a thief?!"

"-and blind..."

"And stupid."

Katar halted mid-step. The fire snuffed out above his hand. His breathing grew audible, wide. Koarsa couldn't see much of him, not until a concentrated light came back over his clenched fist. It squeezed into a tight orb while it only grew stronger, heavier; streaming light out to the far walls, to those thin watercourses trickling down and bumps and cracks on the surface. All of them were blown out by the white light. And the piercing white didn't stop, it only tightened while growing fiercer, hotter. Illumination was an eyesore to her dim adjusted eyes. She could barely make Katar out, barely make anything out even when she defended from it. It seemed like he was holding a dragon's tooth in his hand and not simply fire.

And then, the orb crumbled onto itself. Left them both in total darkness. Cold breeze, running through the cave was quick to grab and pull away any warmth made. Cold, dark and damp. They were back where they started.

"I thought you wanted this, Koarsa..."

"I... do."

"Then why do you _keep_ on pushing buttons?!"

There was no light here. Total darkness. And not the type your eyes could get used to. Not a ray of light passed where they stood, nothing to make out, no edge or contour and still, she could feel his stare as strongly as if they were directly under the sun.

"This whole day you've done nothing, but push me and push me and when I finally give in. What do you do?!" His breathing ran careless. She felt his sporadic movement through the air currents that he pushed. "Insult me." Light came again, this time there were two sources. His eyes, they radiated. Beamed out blue light, his pupils and his iris's completely consumed. "Insult the people I love." The phrase came heavy. She could hear hundreds of voices hauling those words to her, though she could barely understand them. There was no unity in them, no clear direction, just a chorus of chaos, but the sheer amount of them floored her. Hundreds, maybe thousands of voices speaking at once. Katar blinked and the lights went away, as did the voices. "No one knows any of this,-"

"Katar, calm down..."

"-not even Kai." He blinked again and the fury came back piercing and loud. He was right next to her now, looking her straight in eye. Blue flame flowed from their eyes, like wild currents of the ocean it resembled. "But you... out of everyone." She heard their voices echo down the cave and then come back, just as strong, just as terrifying.

"Katar..." her voice barely held from the pressure.

"Why do you even have to know?" Katar pushed even closer, the eyes pushed closer, the voices pushed closer. "Why?!" they demanded.

She swung at him, scarred. Her open palm hit him right on the cheek and he dropped.

Koarsa couldn't see how or where he fell, just that every light-source had gone away and so did the voices. To her fortune. To her serenity.


	10. The wall pt4

Koarsa was trapped; locked in her own shoes and unable to move. What made sense was to run, to stumble through the darkness of the cave and get away, but after the slap Koarsa remained in place. Her legs were not even quivering, she just couldn't get them to listen. She was too afraid to say anything and too tense to do anything. All that was left was counting Katar's terror filled breaths while he calmed.

She knew he wouldn't hurt her; not intentionally anyway. Could bet on it until now. But those eyes, those voices were unlike those of Avatar Rohan she had a few times seen. So close, so vile and scattered. Whatever was happening behind those voices and their lights had Koarsa stricken still.

"I am aware."

"What did you do?!" Koarsa suddenly found liberty to explode. Good, that it was just Katar before her and not... _them._

"I... I don't know," Katar fumbled. "I lost control, almost let it go. I'm sorry." Koarsa heard him somewhere below, he was still on the ground. "But I have it back now."

"Have what?!"

"I have it under control."

"I don't think that you do."

He didn't answer that. Instead, she heard him rustle with his clothes again. After a few brushes, a flame lit up the cave again and him sitting there, distraught, looking at the flame as it wavered wildly. It seemed to have caught him, bound his eyes to it. For a while he held the flame in a trembling hand and then he collapsed it in pain. He didn't wail, he didn't even snivel, she only heard him cry.

 _He's just a kid._ she thought. _He's just a kid..._ As she heard him tear up by her feet in this wide darkness. The water tribe, Avatar's death, all this fell on him in a short breath that she knew him, but he... he's just a kid.

Koarsa wished to bend down, to comfort him and she almost did, but then she remembered those violent eyes Katar attacked her with and that thousand of voices he terrified her with and that got her sober. She couldn't get close and she couldn't run away. There must be something in between, so she can leave on a propper chance.

"When I saw Avatar Rohan," Koarsa started and heard him stop and focus, "there was fighting in the streets. The Avatar..." Katar lit up a flame again. A true flame, calm. "He brought hope, brought peace. And when Rohan died the fighting resumed. We were banished, Katar. Banished from our own homes. If he hadn't-"

"Is that what this is still about?!" He didn't even bother to hide the sogginess in his voice. "That crap piece of paper with my name on it?" Katar glared at her now. Then, he stood, strolled deeper into the cave.

"Wait up!" Koarsa tried to catch up, before she got left in the dark. "Katar?"

"I didn't do it." He kept up a strong pace. "There. You have it."

"But where are you going?"

"To get Kai, remember?"

"You don't even know where he is." Her walking turned into a jog, just to keep up with his bitter pace.

"Yeah, thanks for helping," Katar said.

"I'm sorry, okay? I'm sorry I said that about your master," she said, he stayed silent. "Clearly, you care for that man. Now I know." He snuffed at her, pushed ahead. She continued, "But this thing you have... it's... you have no idea what it is, don't you?" And he finally slowed a little, still tense, distant. "You have to talk about this. Let others help you."

Katar sharply laughed, bitter and then his voice came harsh: "And what can _you_ do about it?"

"Why me? Talk to Kai, talk to someone. Just talk it out."

"We talked now. You think it helped?" Katar retorted and she wanted to slap him again, hard.

"You know you need that." He walked ahead, slavishly silent. "Just think about it, for your own sake."

She too looked ahead now, and in the distance she noticed something. Quickly, she snuffed Katar's flame out. "Look," she turned to some faint light ahead, a glimmer in the distance. "Where there's light, there's hope."

"Where there's light, there's shadow."

* * *

Kai heard a crash somewhere in the distance, but with his ear to the ground it didn't feel very far. Rumble came, shook up his chilled body. An event in a place he was so solitary confined to.

He did not like that tremor, not one bit. It made him strange, made him anxious. Such noises only reminded Kai of a drunk man stumbling home, his smell, his shouts, his hands. That's what he knew to expect from darkness and he did not think this place could be any different.

Another quake came, closer this time, stronger. It was no simple crash. Ground didn't pulsate like it would from a crash. This was a sustained vibration, there was a movement to it, as if somebody was... earthbending.

Kai rose to his feet, carefully walked to a pile of rubble he fell down with and put his ear to it. Another shake came quickly, stronger then the other two before it, and then another. They didn't stop, they came stronger and stronger each time.

 _Somebody was coming_ , he backed away from the pile. _Somebody was coming for me,_ he thought and grew nervous.

Crash! He heard rocks break. Didn't need to hold his ear to a wall, he heard it just fine.

 _But how could he be here?!_

Cave trembled around him from another hit, dust rained on his head.

He was months away from home, there was just no way he could have found him. He wouldn't even look for him. But the dark, the cold and the thunders have managed to convince him. His farther has found him and after two pulses, like stomps of giant feet, he was going to come bursting through that wall. And to his terror, the wall did crumble, it fell away and sunlight streamed inside, falling on dust that was rushing away from the blast and on a strange, looming figure in the middle of the opening.

Kai heard him breathe, wet and wide. He watched him walk inside, yet Kai could hardly hear him move his immense paws. His snout poked through the dust: brown and stubby. Streaks of white, black and brown bands of fur streaked away from it and down his face.

He sniffed, then he growled barely audibly, yet with menace. Another step towards Kai, his head - two times the size of him, began grumbling and sniffed around him again. He pulled back, disgusted, and roared at the intruder.

* * *

Han held the rains in his hands so softly they could easily fall through his fingers. His mind was not on them. Wan, that punk from before, was still blabbering, trying to excuse himself, his little attempt to trick them that fell through. He went on about harsh times, complained about the queen, like all of them. It was more of a background noise to keep the silence out to Han. Something to keep him grounded while he gathered his thoughts, but the kid was growing on his nerves now. "Spare me," Han said. That shut him.

His mind was split for a while now. While the forefront of attention came to an almost robotic driving of the cart, the back of his head kept whirling, faintly wondering about what happened earlier. What could possibly gather such force? Such strength that it breaks open the earth kilometers away.

No earthbender he knew was that strong and he knew some significant benders. The Wall was no possibility, though a favorite of any myth maker. Most of them haven't even seen the thing, much less understood its purpose. It was basically a tunnel, a way to force the opponent's army to fight in an enclosed space. The wall simply had nothing to do with earthquakes.

And the ferocity of the quake. Outstanding. It was strong enough to level cities, break wars. End wars. _Could they have just happened into it? Could this have been just an earthquake?_ he aksed himself and just plain couldn't find an answer.

"Right there," Wan cut his winding down train of thought, strange how he could do that when he needed to.

He pointed to small path, away from the main road, at the end of which laid a cave. The path one walked from the road was paved, but left uncared for and trees, vines and bushes obscured the place, hid it from the world. Over the entrance some markings laid etched in stone, but it was far overgrown with moss and he could not read them. Though covered, those etchings shined of an old world mysticism to him. At a time this place was sacred to someone, but now it laid forgotten. Wan didn't lie, he would have missed it.

He peeked at the road again, before leaving the cart alone on it. Out on a turn ahead came three soldiers. They held each other tightly by the shoulder, their uniforms were unkempt and disorderly. Belts and undershirts roamed freely from side to side as they struggled to keep a straight walking line. One of them fell from the pack and onto his knees. He buried his face in a bush and Han heard him puke, but the other two didn't notice, they just abandoned him. They didn't seem to follow what was happening. Their faces were bleached, sickly looking. Liquids peeked out of every orifice. Whites of their eyes were more yellow than white.

"Han, was it?" Wan asked, pulled his attention again. "This is where your friends will be."

Han looked away from the soldiers, but felt torn away from something far worse than some sloshed servicemen.

* * *

For a while now, Koarsa and Katar followed the light. He was silent and she withheld herself. She had driven him down enough and now he bounced back at her. Strangely, she found comfort in that. Couldn't really bear him till now. Good that he had some kind of backbone, as far down as it was. Now, walking ahead, he hovered an unstable flame over his bandaged hand. She felt she should ask about it, but restrained herself once more. Instead, hearing their steps echoing in the darkness, she wondered about something else: "How large is this place?" Her voice followed the echo of the steps, they took a while to come back.

All they've have been walking was this one tunnel. Obviously, the whole of it was enormous. Smaller paths intersected with their route in a surprisingly predictable manner. An archway every twenty steps. There was no rigidity or design in their appearance, nothing that would show its man made, yet, it was obvious, these were no simple branchings of a cave. It was a network of tunnels. Growing to be who knows how far-reaching. They could walk through here for hours looking for Kai.

And the tunnel itself grew. Walls around pushed away with each step, ceiling grew taller and taller. And the light, that single point in the distance, over time developed into a wall of light before them. Their eyes haven't adjusted to it just yet, but it was apparent that before them was a large open space. A way out, lit by the sun above.

Katar quickened his step and had the right idea, she though. There was no reason to suffer this gloom anymore. There was pure light ahead! She could see the path more clearly now anyways, so her walk quickly turned into a jog, a jog into dash and a second later they were racing. Both of them running, jumping over small puddles and stumbling towards that lively color. A colored diamond, where only an expert could see that hint of gold in it. They didn't need that. What was ahead was more than enough. They ran and as they followed the turn of the cave it opened itself to them and revealed its secret sanctuary.

A forest again? No... An oasis, where trees ran high and bushes flourished at their bottoms. Birds harmlessly migrated from one to another with no worry of predators around. Sun from above inspired vibrancy in color, in spirit; so even though this small patch was enclosed by a wall around, it still felt like a piece of freedom. It wasn't their simple way out, but it was what they needed. A rest from the gloom, from darkness and loss. A break from absolute isolation in your own thoughts.

They stayed here for awhile. Amazed at the view, the sound, the smell of fresh air. Forgetting the person that brought them here. It was about time he stumbled back to them himself.

A dust bowl exploded on the far side of the field and the sound of crashing soon followed. They heard branches snapping, saw treetops swing but not fall. Birds fled the area as some kind of horrific creature roared. It ran, she guessed, hard to mistake the rumble it caused for anything else. Even harder when those sounds start coming stronger. Then, through the foliage, Kai jumped into their view, hit the ground running and did not falter. His head peered strictly ahead, hands flubbed about and his feet held firm. He seemed to have ran his heart out and kept going only on adrenalin. His pursuer soon broke through the bushes. A Badgermole, monstrous in size and furious. Its attention focused solely on its target.

Kai noticed them, standing in the open. Stunned, unsure, he adjusted his course and in a few strides he was beside them. "Run, stupid!" he screeched as he passed.

Koarsa took another glance at it, that slobbering beast that loped towards them. Its tongue was sticking out over its sharp teeth, its claws borrowed into the ground and it threw itself forward as it ran. Panting, grunting. Waiting only made it come closer.

First step and she almost fell over, quickly brought herself up and caught up with the boys. Their path followed along the inner wall, even in stress the need was there to stay in the light. Kai was firmly ahead, scouting. He saw a room up ahead. The arching stone frame with some symbols up top. He glanced back at the beast that still chased. To slow it down, he mustered up a barrier from the side. The mole burst through it easily, roaring at him midway through its gallop. Kai stumbled backwards, forced his legs to run again.

He was the last one in the group now, shouting, pointing, directing them to the room he saw. Quickly, they all ran in. Kai, still running, bent the entrance shut behind him and stumbled into Katar as he failed to slow down and they both fell.

The ruckus outside the room didn't stall. Not for a moment. Mini-quakes from the beast running came as rapid and as close as ever. But the last one was not heard - a leap. It hit the wall and they were overpowered by sheer thundering awe that reverberated in the hall. Wall began actively cracking, collapsing. Debris dropped inward in giant pieces. Light burst in, but it only lit the beast in the gap.

It shook the rocks and bits of ground of its head, roared at them in all its anger and might. The mole stomped down with one paw, then the other and growled. It was ready to pounce, but when light streamed through the dust deeper into the room, its disposition changed. It began to move with impatience, pacing from one side of the opening to the other. The mole snarled, crashed and clawed to the sides of the gap; barked even, but it didn't step inside. Easily, it could, but it didn't. Instead, it just kept shuffling from side to side, pacing around the entrance like it was a barrier, an invisible line it dared not cross, before deciding to leave.

They all remained frozen for a while, waiting for the beast to come back. She heard it outside, complaining about its strangely quick defeat. Koarsa wondered about that too, listening to it until she couldn't hear the beast anymore. It left them alone and that little oasis just outside the hall.

She turned back to the boys. Both of them lying down. Kai clung to Katar, like a girl would to his bigger brother, and Katar, if not a bit awkwardly, filled the role. Kai was rambly, scared to the heartbeat. Though he spoke quietly she heard him well in this tall, echoey place. The boy needed comfort and they stayed like that while he was hushed.

Koarsa pulled her eyes of them and onto this room, the place that even that beast dared not enter. It took only a sharp glance for her to figure out where she was. Statues loomed over and all around them, their stone clothes were traditional, yet unique to each individual one; playful with the elements, but still managing to look stoic, imposing. Their faces preserved, distinct in every detail, wrinkle, beauty mark and scar. Their stone eyes looked overhead, as if looking at something beyond her, something beyond either of them. Dozens of them were arranged in this room, each on their spot on a coil that spanned further than light allowed her to see.

A peculiar shame surfaced within her. This was a temple. She was not allowed here, none of them were. There was a room like this back home and she was not allowed to be there either. And for good reason. These places are sacred and now they crashed into one!? Only the elders were allowed to a place like this. These statues, these people made history, they led history. It was sacrilege, for them to be here. Even the badgermole had more shame than to enter a place like this.

"This is..." Katar came in beside her. Amazed, "the Avatar temple." He took a curious step away from her, glancing around, "I've have always wondered what they were like." He stepped further, found one, turned a curious circle around it and stopped for a brief moment. "I think, this is Avatar Ruki, right? I mean, from her place in order." He looked at the figure with a knowing smirk. "She led in the taking of king Sho-chang's castle and- OOh!" he jumped a line sideways to another one. "And this is Avatar Ashoka. He was the first to tame a dragon. I love that story!" He jumped ahead again, not really caring for the order now. "That's Newt. She -" he started to say, but burst laughing before he could finish. "She disrobed the king of Ba Sing Se in court!" He laughed again and Koarsa peered at him weirdly. "It's better when you read it," he responded and drew his circle around the room back. "Rinzen. She quelled an uprising in Omashu, maybe a hundred years back. This is Shen and that's... Rohan." He stopped beside it, but still looked around, searching for more. "This place is amazing..." He said and the word ran free in here, in this hall. Springful and spiteless.

"How do you know all this?" Koarsa asked.

"I've always loved these stories," Katar continued to wonder. "They inspire. They are mostly the reason I wanted to collect my own." Katar's gaze wondered back to Avatar Rohan. "You've already got one too, huh?"

He stood before it, looking easily at a statue of a man he supposedly killed and his smile didn't brake. For once he seemed calm, smiling a smile that fit every face. It was like some tension was gone from underneath him this moment and his mind, as much as his eyes, were free to wonder and admire. Of the all places that could, this was the one that wasn't restraining him. The only place yet, were she found a reason to grow just a little fond of him.

"There's one missing," Kai said, standing a step away from them both.

Koarsa saw it too. Indeed, there was a gap. "Strange." The line marking the succession in the granite was not unbroken. You could follow it straight from Rinzen to Rohan, but in that gap the line smoothly expanded to a circle where a statue was supposed to stand and that circle was left unfilled.

"Before Rohan there was supposed to be a waterbender Avatar," Katar started. "No one really knows what happened. Just that that Avatar died before their duty was revealed. A space is usually left open in honor."

A somber moment stood under history of the room weighting down. Now she noticed more of these spaces, gaps between the monuments. The statues were grand in presentation. Each powerful in its own way. But it was the vacant spaces that were ominous. Chipping confidence away one slice per gap at a time. Challenging to think that some things might be just as dangerous to the Avatar as they are to anybody else.

Rumble came from up-top. Small rocks tumbled down as something shifted there, above. An edge opened and light peered in, then the circle was fully pulled opened, like a stone lid being pulled away from a well. The light lit up this whole towering room, a marble staircase around them spiraling up towards the light. Every other step of which was accompanied by a statue of another avatar.

"Whoa... how many avatars have there been?" Kai's eye woozily followed up the staircase. It spun around the room slowly, leaving ten, maybe a dozen statues per floor.

A head popped up there, in a circle of light above them. "Hello!" It was Han. "Is anyone down there?" his voice echoed down and Katar answered back. "Well come on up. You don't want to live in a cave, now, do you?" Han laughed and they started walking. Only Koarsa held back.

"All these statues," she said, "Yet I get a feeling, that one might be missing." Katar looked back at her, confused for a short moment. She continued: "Kai, you made a little statue of Katar earlier, could you-"

"Don't you dare!"


	11. The wall pt5

"Here it is, kids. The wall." Han 's hand glided over it, but soon gave up as he and he alone lost interest. They've been riding for well over an hour just to get here from the Avatar temple and the view was more than enough payment for the effort. Passengers even felt that they needed to stand just to see the whole of it, that immensity stretching from east to west. As they got closer they felt the height of it, the loominess of it. Running up far past any pine or empty military tower.

Trees and bushes grew on the side of the wall, pointing at them like daggers or spikes of an angry hedge-wolf; warning them away. It was as if they were pulled up there by their roots and left to grow, to adapt. But not all of them managed. A few trees were breaking away under their own weight, hanging on the last bits of life in their roots. Those that managed to live on, well you couldn't say that they thrived either. Their branches curved up to the sun at their tips and leaves ran a wild palette of seasons all in one go. It was too mad a splash of color to be on this enormous canvas, yet trees above, closer to in the sun, were comparably vibrant, lively and as the eye followed down the wall you could see the autumn coming, leaves turning amber, rusty and dead.

Still, the wall itself held firm. A thing so massive was clearly impervious. No storm or man could scratch a dent into this break between the worlds of fire and earth. And it wouldn't surprise if the world really did split here, exactly where this unbreachable monstrosity stood stretching from the near east to the far west. From horizon to horizon and from one end of the wall to the next. This sort of bridge between worlds, it seemed, could split the universe apart.

Kai's eyes wondered from one spot on it to the next. He didn't feel bullied by that towering structure. Being a bender, a wall made of earth didn't intimidate him. It was an opportunity, a challenge. "Could we climb it?" he asked.

"That thing?!" Han puffed. "You can try, being a decent bender and all. Will be fun to see you shot down," he laughed. "Nobody cares anyways, it's more for show than for anything else. We'll slip to the other side, no worries."

"So how do we do that then?" Koarsa asked.

"You kids... and lady, are very lucky to have picked me for this job, rather then any other sorry fellow," he tried to pull the charming act. "A little way east, near the ocean, there is a passage. It-"

"The war zone!?" Koarsa exploded.

"Oh, you know about that?"

"Are you crazy?!" Katar was next to burst.

"Calm down, kid. Grownups are talking," Han said and made Kai chuckle. "And relax. There were a few battles recently and fire nation lost. They're done, they gave up. Place has been silent for weeks."

"And how do you plan to get us through a war zone? Right under the eyes of the military?" Katar asked

"I know a guy."

"You know a guy?" Katar turned to Koarsa, "He knows a guy!"

"Yeah, I know a guy."

"Oh, this is great..." Katar started pacing in the small cart. "This is just great."

"They don't like him that much," Han continued, "so he's always on guard duty. We pay him off with your coin. He lets us pass. Done."

"Really?" Katar asked in disbelief.

"Yes."

"Terrific!"

"Well what did you expect!? The king's express service!?"

"I expected at least a bit of safety."

"And you'll get that, but if you don't like my services you can go look for better options at the local market." Their automatic response was to look around and the place might as well have been a dessert for all the people that were around. "Trust me. I've done this run six times already." Han stopped the cart. A weak shade from a tree fell on them all. "By the way, I'll be needing that gold right about now."

Katar and Koarsa looked at each other, silently, grudgingly agreed: This was the only option now, if they wanted to get over the wall.

Handling the bags Han toyed a little. Didn't count them, judged by weight. "Kai," he called, "you seem the most level headed here. Could you pass me a pair of cabbages from the back. No, not those. No, a little left. There you go! Throw them over."

Han caught them, held onto one and placed the other before him. He grabbed it wide, palms spread over it; a twist and a slit opened down the middle of it, splitting the cabbage in half. He pulled the halves apart, let rocks fall from inside. They were hollow, the inside walls were made of wood. He put one bag inside, closed the lid and locked it with a twist. Did the same for the other 'cabbage'. Stashed them both away. "Okay, all out!"

"What? Why?"

"The passage is near by." He pointed towards the gap in the wall, halfway to horizon. "I can't let you be seen. Now come." He jumped down, walked over the left side of the cart and punched open the gap between floors. "Ladies first."

Wheels turned, minutes passed and they were still wrestling in that slim cubicle with each other, looking for a comfortable position. They were fine with a little awkward touching and to call this hole in the floor a cell for two would be a stretch, but Koarsa was to tall and angry to simply settle. She couldn't keep her legs straight, there was no room for those here, and leaving them bent was not an option for a long ride.

"Calm the clatter there!" Han's muffled voice came. He slammed his foot to the floor. "You're rattling like an open chicken-rabbit house in there!"

"Yeah, yeah..." her voice surrounded them in this tight space.

"Hey," Katar said a tad timid, but still was heard clearly, "what about the other side?"

"Damn," she quickly composed herself," you're right. Han!" She banged up with her knee.

"What did I just told you? Do you want to get caught?"

"What about the other side?"

Han let the wheels turn for a minute, then: "What about it?"

"How will we get through the soldiers on the other side?"

"How am I supposed to know that?"

"How can you not now that?!" She shouted, deafening in a small space. Her voice remained ringing seconds after.

"You said you've done this six times," Katar argued beside her.

"Well, not exactly six..."

"Wha... you... you cannot do this..." she find it hard to keep still. Heat beat off of her. "We paid good money for this."

"And you'll get what you paid for."

"What, exactly?"

"I get you to the other side of the passage. Drop you off. Done."

"Done?" "Is that all?" Katar and Koarsa asked one after another.

"You paid me to get you over the wall. That's what I'll do. Now settle down, I look like a crazy person here, talking to my ostrich-horses." She felt something in the way he said those words. _Was it a smile?_ She smacked the ceiling again, as strongly as she could manage in a small distance allowed. "Banging is fine while were moving. No talking, though," he laughed. "Got it?"

"I got it, you crook," she mumbled.

"What was that?" Han asked. She hit the ceiling as a response and he chuckled.

Somewhere down the road Han stopped the cart. The place around them was silent. Deathly so. Through the crack in a board Koarsa peered outside, but the angle she looked through didn't offer much. They were beside the wall, she could see the face of it, the hanging trees, the dust near the top. It was changing by the lighting, turning orange. A sign of a coming evening and a chilly breeze coming through the hole was quick to confirm that to Koarsa.

Thirty minutes of wait later they were still there. Waiting. Waiting for a guy to let them pass. "Where is that weasel-snake?" Han wondered from time to time.

"Is there anyone around you?" Koarsa asked from below.

"Not that I can see."

"Great." She hit on the side of the box and a plank opened. With a little effort she got out.

"What are you doing?" Han tried to hold his voice. "The soldiers-"

"Nobody's here, Han. If there was, they would be here already, questioning you!"

Katar and Kai soon followed her outside, closed the lid. Koarsa came up to the cart, Han's stare followed her as she sat down in her spot, her face pursed by anger and disgust.

"What do you want to do?" Han asked.

"You do what we paid you to do."


	12. The Wall pt6

Entering the passage was like riding into an aged ghost town. No sings of life, just a feeling of what was supposed to be.

The place was a battlefield, through and through. Wide, open and very, very controlled. Just on a sideways slice of it one could comfortably say that three hundred people could fit there standing shoulder to shoulder. And on more than a few occasions they no doubt did. The surroundings were firm and true, no way for a non-earthbender to get up and flee to the side, since the side walls were as tall and steep as "The Wall" itself, and only grew taller as the path led on. Or so it seemed. In fact it was the road that was leading down, going on for what now was minutes of riding. Farther up the ground led upwards, though not as rapidly, leaving the grounds to be a heavy and wide pocket.

The right side of this man-made, square edged, roofless tunnel was a lot like an old canyon: worn and tall, a little bit twisted in its path forward with cracked tops, which always looked to be about to crumble and fall. On the left, though, what stood was more like a valley. Healthy looking hornwort and moss bloomed a lustrous green from the grassy bottom to the top of a wall. Vibrant and smooth, a stark contrast to the other side. These two forced a balance, leaving the longways road they traveled to be where these feelings collided. Fighting for territory, neither winning, neither loosing.

They kept on a right side of this passage, didn't want to get caught driving in the middle. But even on their aside strip things did not seem right. It was supposed to be littered with burned and bloodied clothing, broken spear tips, arrows and swords, Han explained, but none of that was here. What they found was obviously unnatural rock formations and an abundance of puddles on the ground right up to the end of this monumental pass and a misshapen, drenched saddle right in the middle.

From the valley side they heard muffled crashing of large waters and smelled the freshness of the ocean in the air. It was walled off, the ocean, but they could hear it crashing into it on the other side of that green wall, frothing and birthing those small specks of water to be carried over the wall. And maybe it was because they were behind that wall, those sounds never came that strong, nor did the smells or perspiration. And maybe it was because they were on the edge of an unseen stream that simply carried those things over their heads that the paths simply did not intersect. Others may have wondered longer about that, especially Kai, but Han and Katar had other worries.

"Do you see them?" Han asked.

"What?"

"Don't look, but they are watching us, on the green side."

"That trio of them?" Katar asked.

"Well, now there are only two."

"Where did the other one go?"

"If I had to guess, he ran off to report on us."

"So what do we do?" Koarsa joined in.

"Not sure. The ending is not that far, I'll sprint us there faster."

Han whipped the rains and the tired animals reluctantly obeyed. The path led down, but it was beginning to level, so water naturally settled there, in a shallow pond a foot above the ankle, so it didn't slow them too much. It was clear, freshly fallen. You could see how solid the ground was under it, as it only began to soften. _It was unnatural for water to be so slow acting,_ Koarsa though. _This was clearly a full day of persistent rainfall and it only now began to have an effect?_ And now that Koarsa thought about it, there was no rain or even as much as an ominous looking cloud for at least two days now. They were under the sun this whole week. _Where could all this water be coming from?_

Suddenly, the cart sharply turned and Koarsa rolled over the cart's barrier. A stone pillar skid against the side of the cart when she caught herself from falling. The pillar was coming for her, threatening to smack. A hand gripped her back, pulled and she and Katar fell back into the cart.

"Hey!" she shouted at Han who was incredibly rigid. "Watch where you're..."And then she saw it. Another pillar emerging from the ground before them. They were being attacked! Han turned again and everyone rolled to the side, holding onto anything they could. Again and again Han was forced to turn, to pull on those crying animals so they were all safe. They were guiding him, forcing him to make a circle and then to halt completely.

"Why are you stopping? Drive!" Koarsa ordered.

"And where will we go?! They have us where they want us. We have to wait."

And they did, though not for long. They noticed him rather quickly, coming down the side of a wall. On a little platform just for him, skimming smoothly. In his heavy frame and his clean scalp the attacker from yesterday stood strong with his hands tied over his chest. He wore thick stone cones as bracelets ready to be bent, and not much more in preparation. The man was back and neither his confidence nor his cockiness had wavered.

"The Bold Knight!" Kai exclaimed. In daylight Koarsa finally got to see the man's wide scar running from the side of his jaw and hiding under it.

"Who..?" The Knight's face got clouded with confusion, but quickly came focused when he saw his target.

He twisted his arms and the ground rumbled below them. One side of the cart lifted, it pivoted on its wheels and crashed on its side. Tied to the car by wooden planks, the ostrich-horses did the same, the others clumsily fell onto puddles and hard surfaced ground, only Han landed on his feet. "Damn you, people! Stop breaking my cart!" He let a flurry of fireballs go, but The Knight dashed ahead, was quick to dodge, to get close. He tackled Han and half a second later they both fell. Swiftly, The Knight jumped back on his feet and left Han molded into the ground, his hands and feet sticking out.

He bolted towards Katar next. Katar reached behind his back for the swords, but the man was fast. Before he could even pull by the handles he got kicked in his ribs, stumbled and fell.

Koarsa pulled water from around the bald menace, flooded his head and froze it. He clumsily smacked that shell, banging against it with his fist, but the ice held. Kai jolted a pillar at him, sideways. It crashed into The Knight and he fell backwards. The ice shattered.

Moments came slow in which he just laid there, far away, yet she could still hear him breathe, shiver from the cold or maybe from rage. She noticed her own fingers twitching, barely keeping in their place from excitement. Long ago that she was this jolted, this focused on something so singular. And that single man now stood, lifted himself like a straight plank of wood and fell into a position that akin to a boxer.

* * *

General Chin sat slouched over his desk, fingers buried in his hair. Pages and letters littered the table before him. One of them from Queen "Guifei", as she liked herself be called. It laid open atop them all, its black ink calling to him in crimson words.

She was a regent of Wei state till prince Manik came of age, but her actions were pushing the boundaries of that title and that letter came to be a prime example of that for Chin. His boat swayed and so did his thoughts in this small cabin. He knew what he had to do, but out of good conscience... They were experimenting here, trying out a new sort of weapon, but the technique was too difficult, too taxing on health of those involved. They tried earlier today and he was forced to stop it out of his good conscience. And then he made a mistake of expressing that concern to the queen.

An answer came quick. Though clothed in some concern, the message was clear: "If you won't do it, I'll find someone who will. Your honor is on the line." That last sentiment made him shiver as to what it implied. The woman was not known for taking half measures when it came to disobedience.

Major Ruki passed under a curtain. She didn't ask to come in, just did - must be something urgent.

He took a moment to sit straight. "Major."

"General, the masters are ready for another test. But we cannot proceed."

"Why is that?"

"The passage, sir, there's civilians on it."

"Fine," he waved his hand away, "just let them pass," he gave her what she wanted, though it was the first time she actually asked him for that.

"We can't, sir."

"Why not? Isn't that what you've been doing behind my back for passed few weeks?" Ruki tried to remain calm, but her demeanor changed. She grew nervous. "Easy," he calmed her.

"There appears to be a conflict taking place between them. One of them seems to have stopped the others from passing."

Chin had no time to deal with this. His schedule was just tightened. He needed to complete at least one test before nightfall and walking them out would take hours. And that letter... He glanced at it again and that inked red stamp at the end that called for red of his own. "Flush them."

"Po!" she burst out in protest.

"Not now, Ruki! There is no time." He turned her to leave the cabin and for the dome waiting just outside. "Send the order."

* * *

The stand-off continued and no one was quick to make the first move. Only three remained standing for now - Han was still trapped and Katar was slow to get up. He was no soldier. None of them were. How could they hope to stop this focused machine standing before them!? Not by force, he had them beat on that front, something other had to work.

"Why are you here?" Koarsa shouted. "There are easier bounties than this."

"Not everything is about money, Lady."

"When what's it about?"

"Do you not know what he did? The posters are everywhere."

"Does he look like someone capable of killing to you?" Koarsa pointed at Katar, who just stood up a bare second ago, he was meekly holding his ribs.

"See this?" The Knight lifted his jaw, pointed to a scar under it - long, thin and gruesome. "This is what people do who are incapable of killing." He slashed the air and launched one of his stone armbands at Koarsa. She ducked to the side as it flew passed. When she looked back on him, the place was empty. He had already gone to Kai, hit him and Kai stepped crudely backwards, clutching his chest in pain. He didn't even hit there but the pains for the kid joined in an agonizing way. Back to her.

The man dashed, passing her every waterbent attempt to stop him. Earth won over water and ice every time. Bearing through pain, Kai opened a hole in his path. Luckily, the man stepped in and caught his foot. He fell to his face, but didn't hit the ground. Instead, he phased through ground like it was a curtain of a waterfall and disappeared.

"What the hay?" Kai exclaimed, still holding onto himself. "Where did he go!?"

"Under," Katar explained.

He scanned the surface, looking for any kind of movement: ripples on small pools of water around, rumble that could be heard or felt; anything that could point to movement. He was moving, hunting, but he left no trace.

A hand emerged from the ground, grabbed Koarsa by the ankle and tugged her down, and left her knee deep in the ground. Then the hand slipped back under.

They were all searching now, looking for anything. Anything! But nothing was there to be found, not by their untrained eyes.

Then the hunter himself emerged, caught Koarsa again and dove back down with a swimmers momentum, pulling her. She slammed her hands against the ground so she won't be and they instantly got caught in the earth. The hand let go of her and the shark disappeared once more.

This was his domain, Katar and Kai both realised. They were just pray, waiting to be picked off. Nor by group nor by one they were a challenge to him. They glanced at each other for an elusive second and Katar got to see life being kicked out of Kai's eyes. See him fall and all of them beaten.

The knight slashed the air again. Another bracelet flew from his wrist and crashed against Katar's chest, clutched it and pulled like a dozen ostrich-horses at once. His feet skidded across the ground as he got yanked towards The Knight's outstretched hand. When the pull stopped, his hands were instantly guided behind his back and before he knew it, he was cuffed with stone restraints that shrunk at Knight's will.

He pulled Katar away, left the others in pain and trapped. The man was triumphant. The victory was not entirely how he envisioned and planned it, but that's what made it fun. Think, move, adapt, win and don't look back when its over. Though he really should have at least glanced over to the turned over cart, surrounded by a canyon on one side and a valley on the other. Because then he would see a wall rising at the far, far end of the tunnel, locking them in here. But even if he did, he would not know why it was necessary.

Back there, at that far, far end, a slit began to open on the valley side of the passage. That thin strip then widened and only later the sound of that effort ran down to them with a low rumble.

The Knight stopped and turned, and as he did water broke through the gap. It tore its way open through the small opening, blowing masses of rock away with ease and came at them. The ocean looked quickly to fill this tunnel and take everyone with it.

"They opened their own damn..." The Knight said, his eyes wide. "They never do this."

Katar tried to run for Kai, for Koarsa and Han. Before the water came, before the waters consumed them. He did not know what he'd do, but he needed to be there. Now!

The Knight pulled him back. "Dead or alive, was it?" he said uneasily and swiped Katar off his feet. He fell, his back to the ground and it enveloped him, didn't pull him completely under, but left him halfway like Han. The Knight walked away.

Katar didn't wait. "Kai!" The boy didn't answer and Katar couldn't see him. "Kai, come on!" He heard it coming. It was still distant. "Kai! Are you there?!" Still no answer. He began to feel it. Being halfway under he could feel how the wave was shaking the ground. Coming stronger, wider and unstoppable. The ocean itself was coming.

"Dead or alive," The Knight laughed, overfilled Katar's head with anxiety.

"Kai!?" and finally, Kai grunts. He's there! "Kai, get up!" Katar could barely hear him, his mumbling was under-powered by the crash of waters. "You have to look behind you, Kai! Look behind you!" Katar said and was forced to wait a full second for his response.

"SACRED SHIT!" Kai burst eventually and began running around, pulling people from their traps while shouting "get up!" two times a second. The ostrich-horses near them were hysterical. Pleading, they croaked. Han burned their lashes away and they sprang from sight, dashed by Katar's still trapped body. Kai caught his loose hand, pulled him from the ground and they just ran. Pushing forward and away from the ocean, away from the great devourer of souls.

How it crashed, how it trembled the earth under their every step. It filled their hearts with terror. And the sound of it, that barrage. To hear it chasing from every side as it went on ricocheting between the walls, growing with every bounce. Louder and louder. Closer and closer. Powering each terrified step with its omnipresent assault.

"Keep moving!" Katar's voice cracked under pressure. "Faster," he said and nodded to himself, silently applauding his fear blinded words. "Go!" he shouted as he felt a dull ache rising in his calfs. His hands. His chest. Last drops of adrenalin were fading away and leaving him with nothing but aches.

He glanced back and his legs kept moving, but his mind went limp. The was ocean coming. It devoured their cart and the sight of that took his mind over with it. He couldn't help. He imagined being picked up by it, smashed against a wall beside him, plastered or maybe rolled against it, like a body thrown down a hill.

Katar turned ahead, shunning away from deathly thoughts, but he couldn't run from them. They crushed him harder than any flood could. Crushed and pressed his mind into something... different. His movements suddenly became distant, automatic, mind - clear, focused like it used to be when he stole. The kind of lucidity he hadn't felt for at least six months.

With little effort he pushed forward, breaking away from the group, scanning for refuge. A small turn of a corner could hide the solution and to their luck, it did. A cliff, with a flat top, was sticking out halfway up a wall.

"Kai!" he called while coming back. "See the edge?" It was half a dozen of seconds away.

"Yeah." He was flustered, out of breath. Saliva dripped from his lip.

"You'll have to... catapult us!" He rushed his words between breaths that started to come heavy.

"It's to high up, there is no way-"

"Either you throw us ... or we die!" Koarsa shouted him down.

It was easy to see, the loss on Kai's face, but they had no choice. They bundled around Kai, surrounding him with more responsibility than he could carry.

The storm came rushing in, didn't halt for anything in its path and did not wait for them either. They could feel the mist coming before the ocean did, dampen their latest breaths with specks of water in filling air. Kai took his last step and felt the ocean by his knee. With a faster push then he thought possible, he threw them all in the air.

Their wet feet drizzled drops of water as they drifted over wild waters. The arch he threw them for was poor in accuracy, uneven for everyone involved, but it did the job. Kai threw himself the fastest and was quick to leave the group. Others followed, drifting away from each other, but too slowly for that to cause danger. The ledge was steadily coming closer.

A weird sensation in Katar's chest found its way back. His stomach rising, trying to pull beyond him. Brought him unease and looking down only made the sensation stronger. The swirling untamed tides far below waited restlessly to grab him. He couldn't help it. He began flailing around. Searching for balance and support, for ground that was nowhere near. Others didn't work hard to misposition themselves, like he did. And didn't land sideways, like he did, near a small pathway leading to a forest.

A second.

And they all breathed again. Kai, Katar, Koarsa and Han. All safe. All here, on this precipice which over-looked the passage. Each calming in their own private way with much swearing involved.

Lying on the edge, Katar looked aghast at waters splattering violently below. Rushing under them to fill that expansive field. It was hard not to imagine the purpose of this for him. He saw a boulder being carried by the current and held it to be a soldier fighting for his life only to be smashed into the wall. He imagined another being thrown around by the stream, slowly loosing strength and becoming lifeless, compliant with the forces of the tide. There were hundreds of them, rag-dolls in water. And when the tide gave its concluding push and pulled back, in his mind's eye he saw it reveal a mass of small, still figures. Washed up and left there without burial.

Katar slowly stood, shuffled with his used up muscles a few steps away from the edge. Kai soon joined him by his right, Koarsa by the left.

"What is this?" Kai muttered.

"Is this a weapon?" Koarsa asked flatly.

"I don't know," Katar said.

Kai took his hand, clutched it, but not as hard as Katar wanted him to, not as hard as Katar would have himself had he had the strength to show him his fear. Obsessive fear that strangled him with shame. Seeing this storm below, a hand of that shame reached out and caught his throat. Choked. And he almost let it crush him, but it was better if Kai saw him die than to see him succumb to it. And Katar would be nothing if not restraint. Nothing, if he let it all go. So he held Kai's hand, watching the riling ocean below and stood like a hollow tree. An empty pillar and nothing more.


	13. The Wall pt7

It hummed. The claustrophobic dome around general Chin, Ruki and a few others hummed. The pressure was making it do it, emit that strange noise as they dove underwater. He heard metal beams squeal as they were bent, heard wood break or bones shatter under pressure, but he never imagined such a sound. A low ambient tone growing from faint to ear-scratchingly obnoxious. And he could really feel the pressure vibrating throughout, made his ears itch. He tried to pin it down, really listen in on it, but it was futile. The sound ran loops around them.

Chin noticed dust fall a little left of him and his attention snapped to that spot, held on it for a solid minute, waiting for it to breach, but the dome didn't break and water didn't burst in. The benders around them held the walls and they held them firmly. Finally, they reached the bottom and stopped. Major Ruki bent open a door, into a spacious hanger at the bottom of the ocean.

A divide, a gap right in the middle was the first thing to catch Chin's eye. Two major tectonic plates had collided here, one hid under the other who knows how long ago. It looked like a wound to him, wrinkled over with dead skin and corroded blood or black rock and dark coral. A wound that was far larger than the limiting walls of this earthbent hanger could encompass or another five that were stationed along its path. But they didn't come here to inspect it with proper precaution, they came here to break that scar open.

Chin stepped up to the ledge and the people below looked up. They were earthbending masters, six of them. Many knew each other: apprentices, colleagues, friends. They looked tired, sickly, just as Ruki reported. Their eyes surrounded by red fine lines beneath the skin. The eyes themselves were unfocused, wondering. Blood vessels inside burst open and their reds mixed with strange yellows.

He gave them half a day from the first test and this is how well they've recovered? He couldn't begin to imagine how horrible it was the moment after. Being exposed to such strong vibration from so close, this place must have been a torture chamber. And you could see that in their eyes, in loose and limp movements of the hand. And now, he was forced to put them through it again.

Major Ruki looked down on her clock. It hit nine o'clock exactly. Other five parties must be ready by now, so she called out the order and the masters shuffled to their positions, spread equally along the collision in the ground. Looking at her clock again, Ruki counted down. With the coming of her last word Chin felt the pressure around him again. That tone, that hum of earth under pressure came back. It was building, came to be more and more expressed by the second. And then Ruki shouted: "Pull!"

If Chin had a drink beforehand, he would not have believed. He saw one of two plates, a tectonic plate stretching kilometers longways, move.

* * *

The ground began to tremble. A terrible rush of vibration, the origin of which was nowhere near. Leaves fell, fruit whole with branches fell, dust and chunks of the wall fell and all that mess plopped into the ocean below them.

It was a powerful quake and Katar's body instantly reacted to it. His stomach rose, not the food, but the acids.

"A second earthquake in a day?!" Kai asked as he clung to Katar, but no one had an answer. They just watched as the passage, the walls of that war torn path to the fire nation shook, were breaking, weakening by the force and still managing to hold; managing to keep the viscous ocean contained and not letting it break free any further. In fact, it began to recede, to pull back. The process was sluggish and it continued even after the earthquake was over, but it was mesmerizing to watch it being sucked out through the very crack it burst in. Moving back, then forth with the motions of a tide. Each round loosing ground until it was gone and leaving only the stones and what one might imagine them to be.

"Is it over?" Kai then wondered unsure.

Katar didn't answer. He kept following the ocean out through the crack in the wall it came in. It bothered him, how easily it pulled out, how it was consumed by that deep, strong blue behind the crack. What was pulled, no, dragged out only strengthened that color, drew it into darkness and now it loomed there, peering at him from behind the green, health filled shield of the wall, brewing a color so full, the evening's sun managed to lighten it only in spots. Few of those spots, where it glistened, were quickly consumed and disappeared into that great dark mass.

But it didn't stop there. It began to grow and it was getting hard to grasp the boundary where the pulled ocean collided with the horizon and the cyan sky. It moved. Inched upward, concurring more and more dominion in the view before them for that dark blue. That deep ominous blue. _It wasn't receding_ , he realised. The dark blue of the ocean wasn't receding, it was coming back for them, rising as a wave.

The ground began its slow rumble again, drums of a shallow march. Continuous shrill of the ocean dawned on their ears as well. It was faint, but rising, just like the horizon. "Oh no," someone muttered and wasted the last moment of silence.

Water broke. The wall that held it back exploded into pieces, crackling like a near by thunderstorm. All of it broke loose. In places it was carried inward and floated on it like a plank of wood, in others the green was gone completely and left nothing but the blue.

Not a second later it was halfway through the passage. From the hit it took, the wave began to break and fold over, but it wasn't fast enough to not drown them all.

A shield emerged before Katar, bent inward at its sides, coming to a point at the top. "Get behind it!" Kai took charge and they did.

Sound came high in volume and so did water. It was bursting around them, rushing past and flooding a forest behind them. Powerful currents of the ocean pounded against the shield, grinded at it and left off with an ear-piercing shrill. An untamed, untuned chorus of voices. Drilling through his ears, though with hands he covered them, and reaching in, plucking the muscle, scrapping the bone.

Did this chaos fell under him? Was he the fault of this?! Katar's mind filled with hysteria. Was he supposed to prevent this? _How's that even possible?!_

"Katar!" Kai's voice came to the forefront. He glanced at Kai. His feet were buried in ground, hands on the shield, body - tense all around. "Help!"

Behind Kai's straining profile, a river raced vertically up a wall, before it turned and came crashing down towards them. Koarsa ran up, began bending it away.

A pebble flicked Katar's ear and, distracted, he turned back. The shield was falling apart! Bits of it were shooting away through a net of leaking cracks.

"Damn it," Han grabbed Katar, pushed him into the shield, "just do it, you window licker!"

Katar grounded himself, buried his hands in the shield, like Kai did, and began holding. The aches throughout his body came back instantly, but he rammed into the shield, stretching his legs straight, instead of letting go. They began to quiver from tension and he pushed them further, leaving only toes to the ground. That helped, but only for a short while.

Then, something solid hit the shield amidst all the rushing fluidity. A back of an arm flipped through the flow of water, arching against Kai's mold. Katar grabbed it before it could get torn away and pulled. It began twisting as the rest its body rolled around the shield and unfolded, like a flag fluttering in gale, one hand holding the shield, the other - Katar.

For a brief second, The Bold Knight held his stare on Katar, a brief second of disbelief, before his arm gave out and he got torn downstream. Katar still held onto him then, his shackles to the ground broke and they were both pulled away.

The current yanked them down a narrow path, too narrow for them both. The Knight smacked against a wall at the entrance, his grip loosened, but Katar didn't let go. The hit sent them spinning, running a wild turmoil round one another. Katar's feet smashed against a tree and he tried to tuck them in, but that only made them spin faster. Noxious. Their feet barely above the ground, the world spinning.

He could barely follow their path as it were. But even with all their rounds made he did not let go. To let go was to die. To let go was to be obliterated by a menacing force, so he clenched tighter.

"Brace!" The Knight shouted as they approached a turn in a path marked by a monolith. The knight smashed into it, was flattened on it. His hand plopped over the edge like it did once before. Katar clung to it. As streams rushed through and tried to scrape him along he did not let go. _To let go was to give up and die to an omnipresent force._

He felt The Knight waken and try to shake him of, but Katar held on. "Release!" The Knight shouted.

"No!"

"You're breaking my arm! Release!"

"No!"

"Let-"The Knight rolled over and punched Katar with his free hand."-go!" His vision dimmed, his hands let go, but in his mind he did not. _To let go was to die_ , he repeated to himself again. _To let go was to be obliterated by an ever-present force._

Alone now, carried by this monstrous flood and still spinning, he felt something crawl up his leg. Layering on him as he spun. He kicked it, but the leg got caught and he was pulled under. A vine had wrapped around his ankle, it snapped and he quickly surfaced again, gasping for precious air. But vines continued to entangle him, folding themselves around his legs, constricting his movement even more, wrapping Katar up.

Then, that strange, boundless feeling came back and even water did not carry him anymore. It's endless quantity dove under. Instead, he just glided, suddenly free from all worries that stressed him, from threats that fell below.

Loose and spinning slowly, he got a chance to look back the way he came and the edges of a cliff come into view. Katar was thrown out. He was thrown out and only vines that tethered around him connected him back to earth. He was thrown and he scrambled to catch the vine before it got rappidly strained and tore off.

A heavy jerk stopped him in air, held him there. It sent a shockwave through his arching back, cocked his head backwards. Soon he fell, penduluming under a precipice where a barrage of water met him. Pummeled him on every slow swing he made until he just dangled beside that new waterfall.

Katar let himself hang there, longer than he knew he should. He simply had no strenght left in him anymore. He hung contorted now, unwillingly eyeing the horizon and it's falling sun. But as awkward as this position was, at least it brought him rest from that far sight.

How peaceful it seemed out there, in the fire nation, where the sun came to lay. No need for it to shine there, so it could rest. The people there bend fire and they themselves scare away the dark spirts that come in sleep. I'll have that, Katar still thought, I'll live in the land with no demons to fear and I'll have a tranquil night, I just have to get over there.

He looked up, a thick vine- torn, but holding steady-stemmed from his waist up, connecting him to the edge. "Safe," Katar said to himself.

He was at least four meters above a flooded forest where water kept moving with no end. He finally looked down on it and immediately crumbled to a fetal position. The vine that held him stretched, a few threads popped, but it held.

"Saved," he corrected himself.

Something flat slapped to his wet back. He checked on it. It was his swords! Miraculously, still with him. But that was pretty much all he had with him now. He had to get out of here and out of this harness that wrapped around his legs.

This puzzle didn't have good solutions, only straw one's. Katar was not much of an earthbender, not without proper grounding, so attempts at bending the precipice or the walls closer to him failed. Not much of a water bender either, not good enough to save himself from a four meter fall into a wild flood or lift himself up to the edge. Looking, he saw a ridge, a platform he could possibly swing to. Looking up again he guessed that he could climb the vine, but his grip was weak, exhausted, and if he fell the vine he climbed would surely pop and he'd drown below. He corrected himself in his harness, felt it tighten around his legs and began to swing.

He kept it as smooth as he could. With an eye on the rip in the vine he gently glided back and forth. Once he came close to the edge, he reached for it and grated the edge with his fingertips, pulled away. He tried to let the swing build in range, in speed, but he was forced to dive under the waterfall every swing, which cut his speed in half. Still, he gave a full body push. Closer now, he gripd the edge with his wet fingers, but the edge slipped away from him.

"Crud," he grunted. He was growing frustrated. He had to get out, but as he kept moving the harness kept coming tighter. Katar already could sense that needling white noise in them - a sign of his legs slowly chocking.

Back again, under the water, and forth once more. He reached for the edge and finally caught it, but a piece of it broke off and he swung away with it in his hand. "Hog monkey's ass!" throwing it away he shouted and let the swing settle. "There's got to be something else," he mumbled.

Dangling there, from a precipice over a forest, he looked around and found no solutions, but then, he got tugged upwards, stopped - the harness tightened even further. Katar was pulled up an arms length again. Stopped. He didn't see anyone over the edge, just saw the vine pull. Stop. Then he saw a few tethers in the vine pop as it was pulled. Stopped. He grabbed over a torn part of the cord, tried to shout, explain that the vine is torn, but he got pulled under rushing water that silenced him. Stopped. He was pulled upwards once more and his bandaged hand got trapped between a rock and the cord. Stop. He quickly pulled his arm out from there, ripping the bandage on it in the process, and popped his head over the edge only to see The Knight begin his final pull.

"No! No! Don't-" The cord was cut and Katar, with his weak grip, began falling. The Knight ran to catch him, caught him, but the momentum of him running and Katar's fall caused their screaming downfall.

They plunged into water and a splash rose around them. The Knight hit it first, Katar came a close second. Instantly, his cheek began to burn, his right hand began to burn, his leg began to burn. All of his right hand side burning from broken, clotting capillary nets. He felt them swell, steaming under his skin, but if he felt them, then he remained conscious, aware. He did not let go. To let go was to die. To let go was to be obliterated by a ever-present force. So he held on, remained afloat, unlike the Knight who began to drag them under.

Katar fought him, struggled to remain above water, but his weight was too great for him. Katar glanced down; the Knight's foot was caught in the harness of vines around Katar's legs. He grasped the vines, began untangling them. It proved to be complicated as it was knotted tightly around him, he could not even find a proper place to begin quickly and atop of that, he couldn't control his ring finger, it just pained when he tried to move it and he had no time to fix things. He had to untangle his legs! He had to rapidly undo the knotted mess around them and swim up to light, to life, while his strained eyes could still see in the darkness.

Just how far down has he gone by now? He could barely see anything down there. His chest felt stale, empty, yet compressed. It called for freedom. For air. He dropped his feeble attempt to free himself and tried swimming up and that feeling, that staleness and pressure spread from Katar's chest to his forehead. Every shift, stir or guess he made caused tension to build, which was pounded in by his racing heart.

Movements were swift, but indecisive; he had no idea what to do. One moment he's back to untangling the vines, the other he futilely swam up and the last, he looked for a way out in the darkness around him and found only that, darkness. There was only one option left for him. He had to die a little. Katar closed his eyes. Let it go.

Beneath its loose cloth, the scar began to glow. Color rich in gold and hidden not for long. A hand moved, letting the bondage slide of it, and a finger flicked. A sphere of air exploded underwater and a calm breath was taken by the figure inside before water crashed back in. It crashed back in and began swirling, moving around the legs, lifting them.

Back at the surface, frothing waters come bursting as the figure lifted out, then forming and lifting the figure further still with an up-spin of a vortex. The Knight was dangling inside it, unconscious and wavering in that violent rush. He was grabbed, pulled up to a fiery stare that judged him. Snarled disgustedly and a second later he was thrown to the precipice from which they fell. He landed on his chest, coughed up water.

This was not Katar. _It...they_ only wore his face. Beneath it there was chaos, there was rage and disgust, and utter loss. All of it beaming out in a vile, malicious cobalt blue through his eyes. Streaming it out to the world and everything to in _their_ vision.

 _They_ attacked The Knight. A flurry of hits by fire, water and rock. Ravaging his barely conscious body. Then, _they_ rose their hand for the final strike and the water behind _them_ rose bent in unison. The end of it formed to a sharpness of spears, pointed at the Knight, lying there. Quickly it came down, threatened to pierce, but it burst open to a simple splash of water. _They_ lost their bending. It just faded in a snap and the vortex that held _them_ up fell away. _They_ dropped on the precipice, crawled for half a step and collapsed.

Behind, the sun had almost fallen. It was at its most weakest yet at its most vibrant moment. A last flare up before its inevitable withdrawal. Katar opened his eyes and found himself looking at it. Up here, the sun still had a few minutes of shine, but below him everything fell in shadow. He was quick to turn up and away from them both.

His chest exploded and he let it go loose, gasping for air like a starved coyote-rat in a dessert. His body woke to a multitude of twinges and muscle aches. His whole right side was burning, skin there was bloated and it stretched his few wrinkles wide. The rest of him was plain exhausted, from endless running and lack of air. He was pushed to a point and was forced to _let go_ and now he had to face a terrifying possibility.

He raised his right palm before him, inspected the scar running across that now was uncovered. It glared at him with its corroded skin, ridges that raised too high and grooves that ran too deep. Even when it could be considered healed it felt different and not entirely his. For one thing, when the scar came about and he got burned to the muscle it left his palm slightly clenched. Out of his control only slightly, but still out of it. And for another? He always was wary to check on it, the more times he did, it seemed, the less effective it was.

"I am aware," Katar said and for a second he doubted it. Was he truly here? "I. Am. Aware." His hand shook, he caught it with the other and said for the last time, "I am aware!" The hand was there, it was his, it was physical, and the calm washed one of his fears away like a chill he let rise from his heels up. It was over.

Katar was here, right under his scarred palm. A reminder. Until now he could just avoid it. Hide it away with bandages, choke the thought it rose, the feeling. But now it was staring right back at him and he found it hard to look away. Staring, like a kid at a snake, his mind filled only with cold remorse.

Katar noticed something. While it shook lightly from exhaustion, he saw that its ring finger seemed out of place - misaligned. And now that he saw it, he couldn't ignore the awkward feeling it gave him, that misplaced pain it gave off. A brushing undertone of nerves cracking beneath the skin.

With his hand he enveloped the finger and tugged. Then he screamed, pushing all his wind out, crumbling into an apostrophe and contorting back. Somehow he thought it would spread it equally. He reminded himself to breathe a second later, before his first painful gasp borrowed too deep too draw out.

He expected his body to react, but not as heavily. This day... these months had really taken it out on him and that was coming more and more apparent. The situation was already hard to handle and it just kept building and building, towering above him like a scolding parent and all he was able to do was look away. But there was nothing that he could do about it.

"So, you saved me," a voice said from behind. The Knight, Katar guessed not looking. He didn't deny that, had no strength to argue the point. "I mean, you ruffled me up. But..."

"Stupid, right?"

"Obviously."

Katar thought about running away and just laughed at the idea. With his strength now the best he could come up with was to roll off this precipice and drown. "It was more of a... shit and a shoe situation, really."

"Oh," The Knight laughed, "I see."

"Though the part where you went all screeching dodo on almost sold me," he said and let out an unwarranted chuckle.

"You almost tore my arm!" The Knight said strongly, but Katar heard a smile. He then let the sentence ring out to a full, stretching the moment before it was destroyed by his next thought: "This will not last, will it?" he asked and felt tension rise from the answer being held of. Katar found the strength to sit up, looked at him waiting for the answer.

His elbow was resting over a propped up knee, right hand and its two digits hung loosely, diluted blood trickled down from a cut above his brow. "No. It won't..." he came back confident, cold. "The best I can offer you is - you, being alive when we're done."

For some reason, he really couldn't pin it down, Katar found that amusing. "I'll hold you to that," he said and the man before him raised his brow.

Leaves rustled, caught their attention. Through the bushes, Kai emerged, dank and soaked. The Knight dropped his hand to the ground and prosthetic fingers molded back on it. Kai, too, jumped alert, ready to strike. But neither wanted to be the first one.

"Just leave," The Knight finally said, letting his hand loose. He turned back to Katar "That should bring us close to even, right?"

Kai didn't linger, he ran up to Katar, pulled him slowly up slowly, asking if he was ok. A single "yes" was never enough. He held Katar, tighter than seemed necessary just to prop him up. They took a few steps, Katar limped on his first and hid the limp on the others and then he stopped, looked back.

The Knight pulled out a carton of cigarettes from his pocket, inspected the contents and squeezed it. Water rushed from beneath the fingers of his fist. He threw the box away.

"I'll need a name," Katar said.

"Why?"

"A name." Katar's stare held as true as his conviction to hear it.

"Nite," he said, but it didn't seem enough. "Nite Daruka."

"Nite The Knight," Katar laughed, but Nite just scoffed at that.


	14. The Wall pt8

Everything's gone. There was just no easier way to put it. Their bags, their clothes, items for everyone's morning routines and simple coins were washed away. All of it lost in that monstrous flood she could still hear at the back of her head. Koarsa had bet before, had lost bags of silver and gold before, but this was too grand to bare. When she lost back home she still had a home to go back to, but all they had now, as far as she could gather, was what they carried on them: same rugged clothes, now conveniently washed, a few coins in pockets and those swords, which Katar carried on his back. The handles were burnt, molded so some value was lost, but no one could make him trade those. No reason to even try, they're always with him. Something he carried and something that carried him, maybe.

Koarsa walked a few steps away from their embarrassing little camp and stopped in line with him. Katar looked on to the darkening horizon of the night, but that clearly wasn't on his mind. _He had too young a face for it to be so clouded_ , she pitied, though she couldn't fully see the emotions his thoughts rose. Unlike Kai, he beheld the world through a thin mask, but now it cracked and he looked bound to find a bigger one, a thicker one and with harder edges.

"What a day..." she said to pull him back here.

"Yeah," Katar finally said dryly. "Once in a lifetime." He waited a moment, glanced back at Kai and Han, who were leaving for a hunt. "You were right."

"About what?"

"Rohan, me, this.. thing. Whatever this was. It's getting too big."

"You'll want to talk?"

"I think so."

Now she looked back at Kai herself. "When are you going to tell him?"

"Him? No. He cannot know yet."

"Then who?" she asked, dreading his obvious answer.

"Well, I was thinking, you."

"No," she blurted, "not me."

"Why not?"

"I'm leaving, remember? After tomorrow we separate," she said and watched him come clouded again, hide away behind his stale mask.

"Then you won't care," he painfully tried again and she wanted to jump and hug him right then and there. "Sort of a practice run, before I tell Kai?"

Katar looked at her, begging and she had to manually remind herself how deeply he scared her back in the caves. Those eyes, those voices... _Tomorrow we separate_ , she thought, _just say yes and forget it tomorrow_. "Sure," she said and a corner of his lip danced up.

* * *

Coming every day, working around the house Katar did every job there. Barely passably, at first, but he did them. From simple tasks to the dirtiest one's that Rohan gave out when Hai-fu wasn't around. But when the jobs stopped came an offer from the master himself.

"He is... unresistant," Hai-fu said to his mother then. "Others find him meek and small - a nuisance. But he carries through all that. He finds a way to stand through all the words or trash, or punches that come his way. When he wants to, he can be harder than stone. But only when he wants to and only to himself," he added. "Let me teach this boy, Meilin."

The first few weeks were harsh. Each hour, each session was slow, painful, but he bore through. He couldn't bend, so Hai-fu thought him the way of the sword personally. Students didn't like such preferential treatment, especially Rohan, which made him very aggressive when Hai-fu pitted them against each other. But he bore through.

Eventually, Katar's days sped up. Training became just a part of routine and Rohan settled in the idea of him being there too. In fact, they started to become friends. Started to spend time together in and out of the dojo to the point that they were inseparable. They would take time to walk around the city, just talking, laughing.

This one time, Rohan asked him to show how he does it. Asked for them to break into a home and scout it. Not to steal, but to just see how it's done. They chose Edin's house, a butcher. The man was large from all his meat and slow for it, but not stupid. He found them snooping around and they ran, ran outside and around a slim corner, and into a dead end. A man Edin's size, he was cutting of their way back by just being at their backs and he was coming, waddling by the way of a penguin.

"You'll have to cry," Rohan said taking of his jacket to look different and throwing it out of sight.

"What?'" Katar looked up.

They could hear him coming, stomping around the corner. "Cry!" Rohan said and punched Katar's nose. Tears swelled up almost instantly.

"Nowhere to hide," Edin shouted out. "I know you're here," he said as he turned the corner and: "Oh..." he stumbled onto a scene. Two boys: one bellowing his heart out, sniveling and slobbering, the other comforting him.

"Would you mind!?" said the second boy, barely turning his face to Edin. "We're having a private moment here."

"You can't fool me. I know it's you, you punks!"

"Crud, run!" Rohan blurted and threw them both on a rooftop. "Run, run, run!" and they dashed across the tilling, rooftop to rooftop, until they could barely breathe.

Resting by the dojo. Lying on the grass. Taking air in buckets. It was there that Katar felt Rohan looking at him. "What?" he asked.

"Nothing," Rohan smiled and turned away. "It was worth a shot."

"That shot almost broke my nose." Katar was touching it up.

"That would be a shame," he then said and smiled dryly again.

Quickly came the day when they were told Rohan was the Avatar. Quicker, it felt, came the day when he left for the eastern air temple to learn airbending. But not a year later he came back.

Light on his feet, Katar's shadow danced around a room then. A lantern on the table lit up most of its modesty: a bed with an open bag atop laid open, a table cluttered with papers and a closet against the back wall. Yet the light wasn't strong enough for him to see more then the edges of these objects. He had to rely on his knowledge of everything in this room, something he built only recently.

He pushed the flaps of a half-full bag wider, put a neatly folded shirt inside beside some bandages, packs of dry food, other clothes and essentials he knew he would need, but more importantly: a pen and paper. The next he planed to leave this house by the dojo and the town itself. On a search for good people and even better stories and songs, secretly hoping to finally hear an old story about a medic saving a life. Put a face to those letters of appraisal they kept receiving to their old address. They were never extensive and didn't give away many details of the story, but neither the family stamp nor the return address ever changed and that was his first destination.

He threw a few more things in the bag and, holding the lantern now, let a light on its contents. Everything was there. Everything he needed. It was still hard to grasp the idea, but he was ready to leave his home, his friends, his mother. Only for a short while, but he was ready and proud.

Then, he heard a thud on a door, several came soon after, somebody was barging. He laid the lantern on the table and went for it, opened. A figure behind the door collapsed into the room, crawled painfully on the floor.

"Rohan!" Katar jumped down, tried to help him up, but Rohan was too weak to stand. He rolled over and laid. "What happened?!" _What was he doing here? He wasn't supposed to be back for at least three years!_

Rohan was barely conscious, barely in this world. Head and eyesight wondering as if through a thick mist. Katar grabbed the lantern backhandedly and lit him up. His eyes were bloodshot, engulfed by it. Irides dashed back and forth furiously while his head tried to keep up. He coughed and it came up bloody.

Katar grabbed him, lifted his clothes.

"Don't," Rohan muttered, thrashing his head about.

"Try not to move," he said, looking and growing terrified. There was nothing there. No gorrific wound, no obvious bruise, just his stomach, bloating.

"Listen," his speech sounded heavy. "You need to stop," cough, blood,"what they're doing. Water. Some kind of weapon."

"What?! You're delirious." He didn't even look up. He remained focused on his gut. He checked it again and again, scanned his expanding stomach and the terror just rose from it. Rohan's here, he's coughing blood and there's nothing he can think of doing! He pressed his hand on it, maybe he could feel something, find anything, anything he could do.

"Don't!" Rohan repeated and painfully sat up.

"Stay still!" Katar pleaded, his voice cracking, but Rohan kept on rising and crawling towards him. He stomped his fist heavenly and Katar flinched back. Another step forward for Rohan and Katar backed away, failing to say anything. Two more and Katar was going to have nowhere to go, backed into a wall, but Katar couldn't think past that, even in this poor state Rohan managed to scare him, terrify to the top of his forehead.

He backed Katar into a wall and reached with a bloodied hand. Katar tried to slid aside, but he felt himself lock. He came paralyzed. Rohan before him was holding him hostage with his glowing, placid blue eyes. Katar became fixed in place by the tension in his skin, in his muscles, in his blood. Only his eyes were free from this. His eyes and the bottom of his lip, which ran out of control.

Rohan's hand caught him, pressed against the collarbone and a drop of blood dropped down on Katar's shirt. As it slid down the shirt the bent blood cut its fabric as if by a short-sword. The hand soon followed down and settled over Katar's frantic chest. The other hand landed on his head, its thumb pressed against Katar's forehead and then... he disappeared.

For a second, he felt empty. His mind was clear and black, and silent. That nibbling voice which commanded the rest of his body, that thing that looked through his eyes and listened through his ears... it was gone. Until this moment it was something hadn't noticed before, but now, as he was so abruptly robbed of it... That voice had Katar convinced that IT was him, but the cloth came off full now and he finally saw the difference between himself and that paranoid entity, bent on reasoning itself into existence by reacting to everything close to blindly. Screaming: "I'm here! I'm your thoughts. I am you!" But there was no observer at the back of his head anymore. He was stripped of it and in that purely hollow mind-scape there was only him. Him and nothing more. No air, no water, no man, no woman, no clothes, no thoughts, no worries. Just him. Just pure. Just perfect.

But nothing pure can remain so. Nothing left defenseless can resist an invasion and so, an alien presence quickly showed. Like a featureless poison it moved through that space and he felt it seep in, polluting his mind, poisoning the ends of it and the pains, and there was nothing he could do but feel disturbed by it, violated as it settled around him like a cold mist. A year long winter in a second old mind. And only after that winter laid fully down his doubt was granted back, the observer - the only defense he could have had against this invasion given back almost as a joke. And it did what it always does - doubt and argue, and reason, only now it actually had an actual enemy to fight - that alien spirit that occupied the back of Katar's head. If only the observer wasn't so weak... It was going to struggle and it was going to wince as it struggles, but eventually...

Eventually, Katar felt his body wake, come back to him with new intensity and, instantly, he felt a cram surge up at the back of his head. Pulsating it spread down as fast as his heart would thrust, when it reached his hand he got control of it. He ordered it around and the hand moved as if he wasn't ever out of control. The cram reached to his legs and he found them moveable as well, behind the same thin veil of illusion. He had no sure idea of what was happening, but already he felt lifted, pushed to the side in his own body. He had no control anymore, he was just granted it.

He opened his eyes and an empty glare met him. Its bleached irides flooded in red, dead and corroding. He staggered back, pushing Rohan's body away and it limply fell to the floor. Katar crawled away, slamming into a closet by the back wall. His heart drummed rampant, his normally controlled breathing ran wild and his vision shook, vibrated. It ran through hundreds of lenses a second on an image that remained sharp. A sight he could not get away from even when he closed his eyes. It remained in the back of his head, where that headache surged from.

He dropped a glance at his wet fingers, found blood on them and flinched away, pushed into the closet. It scrapped the floor. Quickly, Katar threw his hand to the floor, franticly brushing his fingers off that blood, but it had dried under his nails and couldn't be fully removed, he only could hide it in his fist.

The shock dried over time and he succeeded in building up the courage to look at it again. At the body lying dead center of the room. Slowly, he walked to it. Hopeful to see it move again, to see the upper back still rising and falling. It didn't. Katar's hand reached down, pulled some loose, damp hair away from a cheek it was glued to, to reveal to him something he already knew - it was Rohan. Terror rose again, only now it moved with purpose. It clamped down on his throat, his chest.

"Just move," he pleaded softly. "Just move a finger. Breathe, cough, wheeze. Just... just stay." Katar took his hand and found it to be cold. "A minute longer," he still begged. "Stay. Just a minute," and cried, and bent down, and held him. Embraced him for their last minute, until someone banged against the door and angrily called Katar's name.

He dashed to it, bashed the door open and ran. Not to the crowd gathered outside, not to simply run through the streets. He ran home.


	15. The Wall pt9

Katar rested his hand on a rocky fence for support or else he would have collapsed. For a while you could hear him breathing from afar, heavy and long. He slopped forwards with exhaust against the ground and sank his sweaty arm into a crack in the wall. Katar pulled out a box and it's little padlock clattered around in its loop. He had no key! Left it back in that room, that dreaded room. No way to get it back now.

Cautiously, he rose up, looking for distant voices he heard mumble. No one was near and in the dark they left him alone.

He palmed the top of the box looking for its front and the remnants of bits of paint left flaked away. He found the loop and a lock that kept the box closed, aimed them at the edge of stone fence and smacked it down. The loop bent, tore at the base and he broke of what's left of it. Katar rummaged through its contents, pulled out a key, slid it in a lock of a door. The key turned and swiftly unlocked it, almost as if no time had passed since he last used it. He locked the door behind him and fell on it, his back grazing down against its uneven surface, but then, his legs slavishly stopped him. Limp as he was, he still had to follow the ritual of this house.

Katar reached for a little box on the table, where it laid beside a half-burnt candle, pulled out from it a matchstick and lit it. The flame moved towards the candle, but he couldn't light it - his hand was too turbulent, he couldn't keep it steady over the wick and withering fire burned the tips of his fingers. Frenzied, he pulled out another, brushed against the side of the box and extended his arm before a flame even appeared. But his hand kept shaking and he couldn't do it then either. He pushed the box open again and the little shelve fell out, spilling the sticks on the floor. Katar fell to his knees, rushing to collect them with his trembling fingers until the crack in a dike of his mind finally blew open - Rohan is dead.

He is dead, the thought ran in circles. Rohan is dead and he will never see him again, he thought and couldn't hold it back no longer. He shrivelled and sobbed openly while his thoughts dashed from one extreme to the other. One moment Katar would remember his snappy comment, the other - his wavering eyesight moments before... How easily they talked, they argued, they were and how easily he took him hostage with that stare of blue ruin. Their first awkward kiss, how he could feel it for minutes after, burned away by that empty crimson stare, eyes filled whole and left soulless. As if made from redstone.

Drowning like this, he laid there for a while, unwilling to notice the city rising around him. A bell ringing wide, calling it from slumber, calling it to action. The bell died down after a while, but the city didn't go back to sleep. It was fully awake by then and it rose with purpose.

When Katar was able to, he stood up, lit the candle on the shrine and laid back down. Starring at the ceiling, his eyes mechanically followed the edges of the seams that held the roof. Contained in one square, the track they followed was dull, circular, he ran through it just the same. The square was also a skyhole, a window to the sky, but he didn't find it in him to look through it and see the spaces between the stars grow wider. Better to keep himself in this room, in this world than to look out onto others.

Outside he finally noticed a rise in noise. A wave of clamor in the middle of the night. People walking, talking, shouting, searching. Searching for him, he heard them calling and grew cautious as the wave came closer. The wave, the sound of a city-wide search soon surrounded the house and he didn't know where to look, which sound to follow or where to hide. They were everywhere, it seemed, checking every way inside, every corner and bush he could hide in, brushing against the walls of every house.

Suddenly, one outsider pulled the door and Katar snapped to it. Luckily, it remained closed. But the door got janked again, harder this time, and he heard the wood stretch, pop as it splintered in places. He glanced at the inside locks, simple loops on the door frame you put hooks through, only one of three was put to work, but it held.

"Is this the place?" came one voice, raspy and firm, and far away.

"This was their home," said another, a younger one, beside the door.

"Is it locked?" Katar heard Raspy coming over the stone walkway. Light slowly lit up the edges of the door - the man carried a torch.

"Yeah. I can't get in."

Katar slowly rose from the floor, careful to not make a sound, slowly shuffled to the shrine by the door and put its candle out.

"Well, where is it?"

"What?"

"The lock?"

"Yeah..." said the younger one, "I don't see it."

"Move aside," said the first one.

Katar reached down behind the shrine. His eyes on the door, he gripped his father's dual swords and pulled them out. He hid them there long ago. Katar's meek fingers were trembling, but he managed to pull their wooden case off and point them where he looked.

For a while he only saw shadows below the door and heard them shuffle their feet, but then, someone scratched the door, scraped at it. Soon the sound turned and the door screeched as if it wasn't scraped at but scraped into. As if some thin snake was slipping inside and tearing the splinters apart. It made the wood shrill at an empty room. Katar glanced at the swords, gripped them tightly as he listened, waited.

A tip of a dagger pierced inside through the gap between the door frame and the door, just below the hook that kept the door closed, kept him safe. Slowly, the blade inched upwards with wood fighting it every tug, caught the hook, pulled it out if its loop and slipped out side with a quick final outcry from the door.

"Now try it," said Raspy.

Katar jumped forward and down, quickly grasped the lower hook and drew it in its loop. Bang! pulled the man from outside and the door contorted from that jerk, but snapped back in. Crash! came another attempt, tearing the door again, but it held. The meek loop held the door. For now.

Crouching, the yet unsplit swords pointing, Katar stayed by the door, by the source of all the crashing and the terror. His heart pounding betrayingly loud, his calfs shaking him out of balance, his hands gripping the swords tighter and tighter until he could feel the heat in them, the burn in them. The man outside grunted and smashed his shoulder into the door, before trying to pull it now. Trying to move it out of place, to make it unstuck and Katar just doubled and tripled down with every bash that came. There was nowhere to go in that empty room. If it broke, he was going to be the first one to jump.

The door came silent. The invaders came silent. He waited. His mind pounded into focus, his eyes scanning the door, peering through the cracks, his fingers burning in a shaking grip, he waited.

"It's not moving," said the younger one.

"Nobody's been here for years. The door probably sealed itself shut. Let's go." And Katar heard them walk away.

But he couldn't calm himself. His heart still hammered, his hands still shook and his fingers still burned. But now the heat came more pronounced, he could feel it sting his palm. Katar loosened his grip just a bit and a flame burst form his hands. Startled, he let go of a melting sword handles and it ripped skin on his palm away. He fell to his knees, clutching his smelting hand. Its fingers twitched uncontrollably, blood ran down bubbling, boiling.

Katar was ready to scream, more willing than ever, but he forced himself to block that reaction, desperate to not make a sound, not until the wave of voices around the house was gone. He prayed, he begged for them to leave as the smell of burnt hair and burnt skin filled the air. To his fortune, they seemed quick to pass, but he couldn't wait even that long, he ran out before they were gone.

Father's office, mother's and his rooms, all passed in a blur as he dashed through a corridor and onto a front porch. Quickly, he found a fractured bucket below a water collector pipe and plunged his burning hand into its stale looking water, taking some damp webs down with it. Cool. Calm. Soothing was water to him and he let himself enjoy that tranquil moment before running back inside with a bucket around his hand.

Katar made his way back, unseen, dropped in the corner. Slowly, his hand turned the water in the bucket, gently simulating a stream of a river to wash the wound. From time to time he would pull it out and look, and drive it back in after realising that there wasn't much more he could do about it.

His thoughts worked much the same way, ran in circles following an artificial current: Why was Rohan there? What happened? What did he do? What did he do to him?! There were flames coming out his hands! How!? How is that possible?!

The thoughts only riddled up more questions and only one of those he could say he figured out: they blamed him. They blamed him for Rohan's death. They saw him running out of the room, out of the scene, and now they're looking for him. Alarmed again he listened to the outside, the sounds of the search went further down the mountain and the knowledge of that was enough for a breeze of calm. For now, here, he was safe.

He pulled his hand out again, inspected it by a relit candle. It still pulsated, fingers twitched on their own and he still felt that melting sting, but he couldn't keep his hand in smudgy waters forever, he had to cover it somehow. There was nothing useful to him in these empty rooms, no cloth he could use. Everything was dragged out or sold by his mother. Katar took off his shirt, pinned the edge of it with his heel and tore it. A fin strip of ripped rather evenly and he used it to dress the hand with a tight knot. Smothering it, somehow, soothed the burn, eased the pain.

That smudgy water, sweaty shirt for a bandage, why don't you lick it while you're at it? his father's voice rang at the back of his head and he genuinely laughed at that. His jokes were never that funny, not as much as Katar pretended them to be, but sarcasm, he found, the idea of it would stick, incubate and burst in situation like this, make him lighter.

He threw the water out, sat back down in a corner, resting his hand on an overturned bucket. His blood had calmed, it seemed, and now exhaustion was setting in. With one eye open and one fist shut he began nodding off, letting the tension go string by string. But before he could fully let go, he was jolted awake by three sharp thuds on the door.

"Katar," his mother's voice called from behind it. "Are you here?" He jumped up. "People came looking for you. Katar?" He open the door, revealing her worried face. "Oh, thank spirits, you are okay!" She burst in, quick to embrace him, quick to pull back. "What happened? The city's up in arms..." She closed the door, locked it.

"Mom," he said the rarely used word and she pulled away a bit.

"What is it?"

"Rohan is dead."

"Dear..." she said palely, looked up at him, "come here," and embraced him again, said something encouraging, but he heard no conviction, no belief in words "Rohan is dead." He couldn't reasonably hope to find it there, but Katar still looked.

He told her what happened. His thoughts were a fast blur and his account was as jumbled as his mind. He fought hard to keep it straight, not to loose track of it and not to break down again, but he managed.

"We cannot go home - they'll look for you there," she paced around, face buried in hand. "We'll have to stay here till we think of something." We. And she said it strongly. He couldn't think of a word that would have reassured him more. "I can go home in the morning. Bring back some food... We'll think of-Oh!" she stumbled over something, but brought herself up quickly. "What's this?" she said, bending down, picking up the swords which split in two when they fell. "Are these... Jian's honorary blades?" she asked, joining them back together. The burnt handles proved that to be a hassle.

"Yes," he admitted.

She slid them into their wooden case. "But, we sold them," she said. "The man came back, said they were stolen a week later..." She looked them over, seemed glad to see them again. "Was it you?"

They were the first things he stole, in the first house he went to. "Yes," he said and was already ready for her blunt tirade. But how could she sell them? These were his father's swords! She sold everything of his by then, she could have let them be.

"Fine," she said and slapped them to his chest while walking out of the room. "We'll need a place to sleep."

They laid on the floor, holding each other for warmth and comfort. She told him stories of old times and Katar let himself be distracted by them. His fatigue was setting back in. He fell for it. Strings, one by one, snapped away letting him loose bit by bit, until the last string popped and Katar let go.

A gust picked up, started swirling around them. They slowly, but firmly rose from her lap and just kept on rising, wind rushing around incredibly fast. "Katar?" she called out, but they didn't listen. They just kept on rising, feet above the floor. Half a bucket of bloodied water joined the sphere of wind, churning in a circle around it. "What's happening, Katar?" She was ignored again. Rocks surged from below the floor, rupturing it. They too began circling. She grabbed them by the hand before they flew out reach. Sharp winds of the sphere tore her shirt and then began grazing her skin. Alien blue eyes snapped to her, began to descent. Face filled with vile anger and disgust streamed at her and she backed away, terrified as the eyes beamed that hateful color. They stomped towards her with their next step and then they collapsed.

Mind filled with terror, she panted at that horrific figure that laid on the floor. Unmoving. It took Meilin several seconds to realise that that figure was her son. "Katar!" she finally ran up to him, pulled him up. Helped by her he sat up, eyes wondering. "Son," she brushed her hand against his face. There was a ring of blood below her elbow; wind tore through her skin fast. "What was that?"

His vision finally focused. "Where was I?" he asked.

"How can you bend, Katar? What was all this?" she attacked him with questions.

"I don't know," was all he could muster. " Where was I?" he asked again, looking up at her residually terrified face that held no answers.

Some muffled voices came from outside and grew closer. Through a window she noticed a torch moving. "They"re coming." They either heard or saw what was happening here. "Get up!" She pulled him up, dragged him through the corridor to the back door, thrust her purse in his hand. "I can distract them for a while-"

"What?! There's got to be a better way."

"You're smart enough to know there isn't."

"But where will i go?"

"Somewhere away. It doesn't matter as long as you're away." She handed him his fathers swords and pulled him close for their last embrace. He felt her shaking, her hands engulfing him. She pulled his head down to her level, kissed the forehead. "Go."

* * *

Fire surged, then died down quickly. It seemed tuned to Katar, controlled by his mere presence, but out of his control. Like an animal, it followed the feelings of its master rather than his orders. Now that he stopped talking it was let go, loose to come and wither at its own pace.

"Have you ever seen a hollow tree burn?" Katar said. He stared, transfixed by fire still.

"No, I haven't"

"The trunk is thin, so fire quickly finds a way in. Then it grows there, quicker than anywhere else. It seems stronger when its in there. Concentrated, you know?" he said and shuddered. "In there, I think, it truly comes alive. If you look in, through the cracks, you can see the moment when it does, it turns blue."

"Blue fire?"

"Blue fire.

"And if you wait long enough, you can see the whole thing be consumed. Bark breaking down and burning, sizzling away its last moments of life. A tower of fire, all red, black and blue," he said and she waited for him to say more. Not to finish on such an image, on such a thought. But he kept silent, kept looking at that fire before him like its the only thing that's true.

"I haven't properly apologised for what happened today," Katar started again. "That I hurt you, that I let them hurt you. I failed to keep them suppressed and for that I truly am sorry."

"Aha..." Koarsa's stubborness surged back and she began to hate the reason she let it answer instead of her.

"I am! If I hadn't let go-"

"Oh, just stop it. I don't care!" and thankfully that shut him. Hopefully, they won't speak no more. Hopefully, she will not have to drop him.

"Avatar-y thing i did, you said. Have you seen it before?"

"Yes," she forced herself to limit her answers. Maybe that will stop him.

"Where?"

"Back home. Rohan had done it once, then just switched back to himself."

"It's different then..."

"Maybe," she said and thought to stop right there. There was no need to say anything more, but she found that hard to do now. It was too obvious to her. "Or maybe it's just your weak spine talking."

"And what would you do?"

"Get control of it," she put bluntly.

"As if," he stopped, annoyed. "As if that's possible. There's no control allowed there. It took me half a week only to learn how to sleep, so I wouldn't let go and have that state flip on me. Does that sound workable to you?"

"It doesn't sound like you've tried."

"You think?! My own mother fell in its path. It didn't matter how much I protested; it would have attacked!"

"Then, if you have no control over it, you must tell the others."

"No!" He jumped up.

"What no?!" She stood up to confront him.

"Not now!"

"You have to. You cannot keep carrying this bomb around and not tell anyone. Think of the danger you put us all in."

"Nobody asked you to come."

"You put Kai in."

It finally seemed to hit him. The guilt, shelled by thin anger. His eyes drew empty, darted away. "I plan on that," he said.

"Yeah... good luck." Tomorrow you're gone, Koarsa. Tomorrow you're gone. And the sooner in the morning - the better.


	16. Ep 3: Refuge

One suitcase per person and immediate belongings. That was the simple requirement, if you wanted to get on the next to the last train going to the fire-nation ports. But it caused quite a ruckus amidst the crowd gathered outside it. These people were all of this plot of the earth, farmers, artisans and the like, reluctant to leave the lives they've built here, wanting to carry as much of it with them as possible and that caused a scene with almost every single one of them.

It was easy then, for the group to slip in. With all of their belongings washed away, all they had to do was act reasonably and they were let in on the last non-cargo wagon. The last one with some actual seats.

No baggage, no food and little coin - the situation had forced them to move faster, but one glance outside and Kai couldn't help but feel disgusted with himself. All these people outside, hoping to get in, running from the battlefield that is going to be their homes and land. _We're being selfish! Sitting here, while an impossible number of people still waited outside. We've pushed somebody out,_ he thought and couldn't help but imagine some kind-hearted farmer and his three kids being left behind because they four got in instead and the image grazed him harshly.

 _They should have stayed_ , but Han and Koarsa came up with this idea and Katar didn't push back. Kai didn't either, but he didn't think that far ahead and now it was too late to protest. Especially after the train slouched forward and sealed that possibility away.

It moved heavily at first, but metallic thuds of its wheels came faster and faster over time. Early sun began blinking through a small window in makeshift wall of cases and bags, withdrawing for a brief second behind a glowing outline of a tree and coming back again before the stain sun left in his eye could fade. It forced Kai to defend against it with a raised hand until a turn on the tracks.

Kai heard of trains, but didn't believe this big and difficult a thing could even exist. It seemed like Katar was trying to fool him when he told what they are. Like it was a part of their True-lies game where one one person tells something and the other has to figure if that is a lie or not. A long metal tube with turning gears and wheels that rides faster than any animal could run? A lie, no investigation need be led or questions asked. There was simply no way he'd believe that sort of thing before he saw it.

Kai also wouldn't have believed Katar if he told that complex technologies like this, much like everything, come by cycle. That for thousands of years of recorded history nations rise and fall for a multitude of reasons and that technologies come and wither for much of the same. And while it is very difficult to find remnants of those lost times out in the world there are records in books and diaries describing what was once or twice before. Some ideas and inventions just come again and again to this world in similar forms.

The fire nation colony they now rode into was settled long before Kai was born with only a few major encounters with the local forces. From when on the plot of land bordered by The Wall, which started near Hei Bai's forest reaching almost up to the natural canyons of The Great Divide, and the natural borders of the peninsula belonged to the fire nation. And as contested as this area later was the clashes with the earth kingdom did not do much to move these borders. Eventually, a peace treaty was signed between the nations, establishing the territory as belonging to the fire nation and things settled. That is, until Wei state decided to split from the earth kingdom and take the area for it's own. Now the obvious threats from the hostile state were pushing all these people out of their homes and Kai along with them.

"We should have stayed," said a woman sitting across from them. The thought resonated silently within the wagon. A man was embracing her, his hand over her shoulder, palm gently stroking her long black hair. "It's our home, we could have done something."

"It's for the best," the man hushed her.

"We could have tried to defend it." The words stopped his hand midway. His other arm was brought perpendicular by the elbow, lower part of it buried in silk cloth and strapped to an opposing shoulder, not to be moved for two more months. There was more than a hint of an officers uniform on his bordeaux garments. His eyes dropped to the floor. "I'm sorry," she said and huddled closer. "I didn't mean it like that."

There was little talk, no more then a few pockets of whispers here and there. Everyone was tense, irritable; focused on their lack of futures away from home. Even within their small group something of that sort emerged recently.

From yesterday's evening on all of them came secluded form each other. No one talked, not really. Instead of talk, tension rose. All of it passive, with the looks, the sneers, the comments. This little group was breaking and Kai was nervously aware of that. His chance to finally find something stable was being chipped away bit by bit.

Han stood up, began walking away.

"Where are you going?" Kai asked.

Han turned. "Away from you two." He glanced at Koarsa. Apparently, she didn't need much convincing, as she too stood up and came to him.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Kai asked, but they were already behind a door.

Kai stood, started following them, pulling Katar with him who didn't seem to care. A gust of wind attacked him as soon as he entered a short, open-windowed intersection between the cars. Train's wheels blasted off as it speeded ahead through the fields of golden grass.

"What's that supposed to mean?" He repeated himself as soon as they were back in sight.

"Means we're leaving, kid." Han didn't even bother to turn back, he just walked forth through an obstacle course made out of passengers feet and luggage.

"But yesterday we agreed to..." he started, but the cars were too short to have a solid conversation like this and they were out of his sight again.

"Let them," Katar said from behind him, but Kai ignored that. Desperate, he quickened his step, walked into another car and started again. "We agreed we'd stay together through this. You said we'd have a better chance of survival."

Han stopped, turned, over-playing his reaction, like he was about to sneak away from Kai and was found out at the last second. "Survival?!" he said. "Boy, do you even know what you're talking about? Yesterday, I've lost more than I could have earned in a years. Okay, K-star!? And all because I've decided to take on you, cancerous, two. We've had nothing but plagues since we've made our cutesy little group around you." Han pushed Kai. He, being weak to Han's strength, fell flat on the ground. His shirt flipped up, bottom half of it falling on his face. "I'll take my chances..." Han's voice trailed off.

Kai smacked that shirt back down, revealing Han staring at him. Caught in thought on the spot Kai's clothing now covered. A place where he was marked since birth. _Could he know?_ Kai feared.

Under monotone of shock Han's voice was low. "Are you a twin, boy?" he asked. Both of them stood silent, one waiting, the other - unsure how to answer. "I asked you a question?" He said in that same tone, but not waiting for an answer he lunged forward, grabbed and pulled Kai up, drove him into the metal door and held him there. "Are you a twin, Kai?!" he blasted at him.

"What are you doing?" Koarsa shouted.

Katar reached over his shoulder, gripping for swords there. Quickly, Han stopped him, pointing with a knife of his own, firebent and with as sharp and straight edges as any real one would have. "Don't involve yourself in this," he said and going back to Kai he drove that bent knife into a wall by his ear. It bent around his fist like a shield as his hand banged against metal.

"Yes!"

"Brother or sister?!" he interrogated further. The anger was real, focused. "Talk!"

"Sister!"

"Han, what are doing?! Let him go!" Koarsa shouted.

Katar tried to intervene, bending Han's hand at the elbow so he'd loose grip, but Han just smacked him off. "And where is she know?!" Han went on, but not getting an answer soon enough he pulled Kai to himself and slammed him back into the door. Complementing the slam to his back pain surged in his chest, one he 'earned' two days back, one he was free from since yesterday.

"Han! Stop it!" Koarsa ordered.

"Where is she?!"

Through his chest he barely spoke, but he gave him what he wanted "She died at birth." Han looked in his eyes, looking for truth. His iron grip slowly fading. He started nodding and let go of Kai who slumped down.

"Are you crazy?!" Koarsa scalded, dashing passed Han and up to Kai, going to check on him. Han began pacing in a small space he had, muttering something. She glared back at him. "What's wrong with you?!"

"Don't you get it?"

"Get what?" she stood, facing him.

"It's him. It's him that is bringing bad luck."

"You're loosing your mind, Han," Koarsa said, but didn't wait for an answer. She turned back down too Kai.

"Look..." He pointed, his finger waggling. "Look under his shirt." She ignored his madness, but Kai grew tense again. "Just look," he said and Koarsa, more annoyed then anything, pulled it up. "See that?" He pointed again, at a mark above his hip. A round pool of two opposing colors, spinning, chasing each other. There was a dot at the head of each pool.

"A birth mark, so what?"

"A doppel-mark."

"And?" she asked, her anger at a constant level.

Somewhere outside, the train joined the conversation with two short horn pulls. Both ignored.

"That means he's a twin! He's not... well... whole."

And now Han started talking about it. A doppel-mark or a mark of a brother, or whatever. It was always the same thing. The same frustrating idea. He thought he got away from it when he left home, but, obviously, that was not the case. All of his trouble stemming from that one point above his hip and now it will cost Kai his second family. _Would I be a firebender, I would've burned it off long ago,_ Kai quickly shuddered at his own thought. A thought he didn't have for almost four months now. But just plain being with Katar couldn't save Kai from this. If not ignorance, he wasn't sure what would.

"What are even on about?!"

"Most people do good things and bad things, right? Think good things and bad things..." Listening to that whole tirade again, he barely felt himself be stringed. Han's lips moved, but he didn't hear it utter sounds. Kai's mind rushed blood down to his clenched little fists. "Most bring good look and bad luck. He only brings one of those."

Outside, the train again blasted its horn. This time, one long log of a note. Powerful, yet ignored again.

"That's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard." Koarsa defended Kai.

"Yet, here we are. With nothing, but shirts on our backs." Han extended his arms as he finished, confidently standing by his point.

Angry, Kai jumped. A few furious steps later he lept blindly, fists reaching for Han, and the train seemed to respond. Tilt even! As if pulled back by the force of his jump. It sharply lurched back and an abominable screech of metal grinding metal attacked from outside. The passengers were jerked forwards, some knocked of their feet, bumping into others. Kai tackled Han while they were both in air. Han fell on his back, but Kai crashed further down then rolled even further.

"You see?!" Han said before metal and horn were done blasting in their ears. The train was slowing, but the process was not so sharp anymore and people were able to get up. "What did I tell you?"

Kai jumped on his feet again, ready to pounce again, but Katar quickly ran in between them two, beside some lady in a black tank top.

"Don't listen," he said, but that was easy for him to say. Easy to say and hard to follow. Han was looking down on him, taunting, judging, trampling.

"He's a bad omen," Han said.

Katar caught Kai by the shoulders, so he wouldn't run. He looked at Kai, not scalding. "Don't listen."

"How can I not!?"

"He's just some ass-hat," Katar said over the blare of the horn outside. Han looked down on Kai still, "don't listen. You know better."

Finally, the horn and metal fell silent; the train had almost stopped by then. It was slowly drudging up now, slowly building its speed back.

"What was with that stop?" Koarsa asked, ignoring Han completely.

A herd of fox-antelopes rushed by the side of the train; a sun-bear puma was chasing the last one of the pack. "It was just some animals," some of the passengers speculated, "blocking our way."

"Damned beast," a woman behind Katar sighed bitterly, "can't be trusted with anything," she said as the train entered a tunnel and a curtain of darkness slid over the room.

"You're a bad omen, kid," Han said dryly. "You should let others know that," and his cruel voice came strong over the compressed thuds the train trudged out in the tunnel. Beating him down in the darkness, which he so feared. Words repeating to him, like those wheels that pounded outside.

If he was a firebender...

Suddenly, shrills of slashed air sounded off in the dark. A body fell to the floor with a thud and a moan. _It's Katar!_ Kai's mind jumped alert. He knew his voice too well.

"Wh-" Katar tried, but his voice quickly got cut with a punch and another thud - his head smashing to the floor.

A flame lit up before Kai; It was Han, trying to light up the room, but it got instantly snuffed out. Han slashed at the assailant, his fingers cloaked in breathing, rigorous fire and that fire was quickly answered with fire. Splashes of flame lit up the darkness, but not enough to see properly. All Kai saw was obscure moments of movement in between the fades of light; brief flashes of a rigid competition which Han lost and darkness fell fully on them again.

"Where did he go?!" Koarsa asked.

Kai instantly started listening. Searching. He was good with sounds like that, could tell people's steps apart rather easily, but now he strained to: people moved in this wagon, most of them scared, their shuffling clouded the search, thuds by the wheels, confined by the tunnel walls bounced into the wagon. Even his own heart did him no good, he heard it beating in his right ear, throbbing, but despite all that he caught movement. She was moving back to Katar and Kai started hurrying there, but was stopped by fear alone, when a flame formed over Katar's neck into a dagger.

It was hard to see much of anything then, but Kai saw enough to stop. A thin, but muscled hand, her long, jet black hair, brushing against Katar's cheek, loosely guided by short, sharp breaths and that golden eye, peering through the bangs. It's color maybe tainted by the light of the flame, but the conviction in it was left untouched. She twisted her wrist a little and the flaming dagger moved up, scorching Katar's underjaw, urging to rise.

Sunlight blasted the room as the train left the confines of the tunnel and sound of rushing wheels was now free to blast away into the plains around. In light Kai tried to catch a decent look at her, but she hid behind Katar, bending down so she could keep proper hold of him; she had a whole head over Katar. Her hair was as black as her v-neck top. Her eye darted between him and Koarsa.

Slowly, she circled them both, playing with the placement of the dagger around Katar's body, flaunting full control. She stopped them by the sliding doors. "Open it," she ordered some distressed onlooker who seemed lost. "Open the door!" She slashed a flame beside him, scaring him into submission and they were both slid open.

The train was running maybe a third of its original speed, maybe more, and a blast of wind to the inside was fierce, blowing the lady's hair back, revealing a face untouched by scars or burns, or any such feature. A beautiful, clean face now dawned by anger. "Undisciplined beast," she grunted, eyes dashed between the running plains outside and Koarsa with Kai, "had one job..."

"Sumi?" a voice came from one side and her eyes darted there.

"Nite?" Sumi's voice pitched up in surprise.

"Hi."

"Hey..." Her firmness disturbed, Sumi smiled. "What are you doing here? It's still two weeks until-"

"Work." Nite cut through her enthusiasm. "Just giving a chase to a felon. In fact, that's him right there."

"Oh... well, lucky me."

"I figure, maybe you could hand him over. He slid out from my territory."

"You know the rules, bub."

"You've never been too keen on them," he said and she laughed.

"What's going on here?" Kai looked around, lost. They both went on, ignoring the question.

"Do want to drop them?" Sumi asked.

"Its been a rather a long time since we competed," Nite said and she didn't hide her excitement.

"Wild west?"

"Wild west."

"Wait! Nite, you promised," Katar anxiously interjected.

Nite looked him down, dashed his lip in contempt, said: "One requirement, though. The trophy stays alive by the end of it."

"Oh... you're no fun." She glanced at earth running outside. "It's a good thing we're moving slow."

Smoothly, the blade threatening to roast Katar dissipated. She grabbed him by the neck and jumped out, pulling him with her. Kai and Koarsa dashed after, but stopped three steps in when they saw Katar and Sumi being sent back on an earthen panel. The panel lodged into the door frame and the whole wagon trembled. Katar and Sumi were thrown of it. They clashed with Kai and Koarsa and all four fell on the floor.

If before, when Han interrogated Kai, people weren't scared, they truly were now. Kai heard nervous muttering, shouts and general distancing from the four of them. Somebody slurred at them, others called to get out, to get away.

In the general confusion, Nite was free to walk over to the blob of hands and feet Kai and others now were. He pulled Katar out of it, strapped a pair of cuffs around his wrists and dragged him away.

The first moment they could, others jumped to their feet, chased after into the next wagon. Didn't find them there, so they ran into the next one and the one after that, and the one after that, but they seemed to have simply disappeared.


	17. Refuge pt2

Wind blasted at Katar. Up here he was forced to endure its reign and its tear inducing attack on his vision. It barraged him constantly and he barely saw anything through a squinted watery blur.

Nite threw Katar up here, on the roof of a moving train. Just grabbed and tossed him, then forced Katar to walk it like a plank of a boat. Carefully, he tried to nail his every step, looking through a hail of wind and tears where to put his weighted stone shoes which Nite slapped on his ankles so he didn't simply fall. Still, every step could be his last one and the rush of trees running passed the shaking train made his walk uneasy. Especially when kept Nite smacking his shoulder, pushing ahead.

The strongman also kept a constant look ahead, searching, probably waiting for a clearing of a forest so he can throw Katar overboard like a crazy person. What exactly was the deal they made about him? Is he just a plain trophy now? Was his presence, his resistance so mere that they barely considered him?

Nite snickered. Cemented the thought in Katar's head by saying: "Thought you would resist more."

Katar looked down at his feet covered in rock, felt his wrists behind his back, also covered in rock. "And what exactly could I do?"

"I don't know. Something. You used to."

"And you washed the road with us each time," Katar said and Nite laughed. _Was this a power trip or something?_

"I did, but you and that kid used to be trouble. He'd try something."

"And that's why my rib cage is fine and his... Are you helping?"

Nite stopped them, turned, so they faced each other. "You have my name and my oath, but it's still more fun for her when you run."

He stared him down and Katar barely saw anything more than his iron face. The stare too was metal and packaged with silence. The type that made one lost and unable to get away. Was he supposed to shy away? Push back? Laugh it off? There was no winning against that. All he knew that would work was to run and that was impossible. He's stuck on a train between the iron face and a hard, spinning earth. Nothing he could do could break him out, but there were other people around.

Slowly, a small ceramic ball drifted in between their noses. The little thing spun, revealing a small hole at the side of it. On the inside Katar caught a glimpse of fire, vibrantly burning a stark blue.

"Oh, Shit!" Nite snatched it, quickly bound some earth from his prosthetic fingers around it and threw it further down the train. "Duck!" He ordered and formed a small shield around them from their weighted shoes.

Hiding, Katar heard it go off, a deafening blast that shook the train. It wobbled, almost jumped of its tracks. In sharp unison a flock of pellets hit the metal roof and their rocky shield. Somewhere over there, metal began scraping, popping like strings and scraping again; metal tearing with a painful screech of a ripping muscle that kept this train whole.

Only when the sound died down Katar looked over there. The roof of the next car was stoved-in, bent inwards like punched-in paper. A man could easily fall through that hole and not hit the edges which were the color of ripe coal. Steam rose over the hole, wobbled the image.

"Sumi!" Nite shouted and Katar quickly followed his stare. "There's people here. Don't be callous!"

"Ugh!" she moaned, "You again, with your heart. I haven't hurt anybody yet," she complained. Then grabbed something small and unhooked it from the side of her belt. It fit neatly in her clenched fist, so Katar couldn't see. Her hand shook, like she was trying to crush whatever was inside. "Besides, we dropped the rules. And don't you want this to be fun?" She extended her arm, releasing its fingers and another ceramic ball flew at them from them.

"Run!" Nite ordered and they did. Dashing as quickly as they could on this unstable roof. Katar glanced back. She stood there, rather calm, her hand at her waist, fingers about to snap.

The top of the train thundered again and the blast ragdolled them both. Katar was sent rolling with his hands behind his back, hopeless to stop himself in anyway. The tin roof, the trees around, the roof again, morning sky, the inside of a cabin, the view through the windows, metal flooring of a wagon and the sky again; all this passed in a blur as he was thrown spinning inside the train, his back smacking the floor.

Few people that still stayed in this particular section of a train peered at him, scared to come closer, unsure of what was happening. Somewhere in a corner a baby kept screaming and a mother hushed, but that sharp voice banged around in his head along with a new sensation of his screaming wrists. He landed back first, so they, being at the back, took most of the landing. The pain was loud, the skin felt like something had shattered. He can't just be here laying like this. Like his father thought him, he had to see them.

Carefully, he pulled his arms in front of him and they were fine. Hands were fine. Sure his wrists looked like they were skinned kangaroo-mouses hung over a fire and would for weeks, but there was no significant tearing or popping, nothing such. With pain he could move his fingers, bend his wrist and turn the palm, but he could move them. It was the cuffs that shattered, he realised. The cuffs that Nite had put him in.

 _That's right!_ Katar quickly sat up, those two were still after him. Katar tried to stand and there he found another obstacle. His calves burned with pain and that pain laid him on his back again. Reaching, he checked. The skin felt irritated, hot to the touch, but then he realised that he was touching his skin through holes in his pants. Linen clothing has been burned by the explosion, left crusted at the edges. He hoped none of it had burned to his skin, but there was no time to check on that. Wincing through the burn, he stood, started making his way away from those two and to Kai, maybe Koarsa.

Walking with a slight limp, he would glance back through the crowd to see if he was being chased and for a while would silently celebrate that he was not. Still, his legs were stinging hot, wrists screamed in pain, he could barely open the door at the intersections and half of his body was still itching from the yesterday's splash. All those months of hiding and scavenging, and eating in ditches and there were no three days as eventful and punishing as these. _There can't be much more of this that I could handle_ , he thought to himself. _At this rate it won't be long until I'm dead and sold for-_

Suddenly, somebody kicked him at the back of his knee. Naturally, he jerked backwards while falling down to it. Sumi grabbed him at the wrist, pulled and his hands returned behind his back, secured by a rope. "Come on," Sumi ordered as she jolted him up by the cord. It tightened on his wrists and he felt the brushing of the fabric a hundred fold on his damaged wrists.

"Let me go!" He wrestled with her as they walked through the cars, but the aches made it extra hard. People avoided them both like a schooling of three-tailed anchovies would a dolphin piranha. "I can pay you." She ignored him. "Where are we even going?"

"Shut up."

Katar almost had it, almost managed to get away from them. Six months. Six months of trying to get over the wall, into the fire nation territories where that cursed bounty poster didn't matter. But it did. It did matter here and in Wei state, and in the earth kingdom, and in every small town he'll ever visit. He had to get out, but there was nowhere to go anymore, bounty hunters started appearing out of nowhere now. But there had to be a way for him to get out, at least in this moment, at least for five more minutes.

He looked at the door frame by the intersection. He could kick off of that, fall on her and then he would bolt, but then he would have to open doors by himself, with no hands. _No no_ , he thought, d _on't falter. One idea out, more still to come._

"The train is still running," Katar continued distracting her, "there can't be anything that is left for you to do. If you coul-"

Her fist came into his stomach. He bent over, jaw fell wide open. Sumi's fingers reach down, put something inside his mouth and shut it. It was cold, smooth and rounded. Katar's green eyes filled with terror when he realised that it was one of her explosive orbs.

She gripped his jaw tightly. "If you open your air-hole one more time..." She pulled her hand into his view, middle finger squishing against her thumb, tense, seemed like it was about to snap and blow his head off! "Are we clear?" she asked and Katar nodded slowly. "Now go." She shoved him forward and he didn't resist.

One leg dragging behind, hands tied, held up a bit so they didn't sag or brush against anything, Katar glanced at her. All this time, Sumi kept firm, in control. Another not to be swayed easily.

She opened the door for him and he got shoved into another of those blasting intersections, but when the door closed behind him Sumi did not follow him into the room, he realised. He glanced back through a small window in a sliding door. Nite was there, in confrontation with Sumi.

Quickly, Katar turned, spat out the ball that held him hostage and searched for a way out. These sliding doors were designed to go all the way into the wall and so, had no proper handles, no appendages that would be sticking out. And without his hands he was stuck here, with a bomb in this running box. He had to get out, away from those two.

He tried to jerk his arm free and quickly regretted that decision as his wrists burned like something was eating them raw. He thought of cutting the rope with his swords, but they were in their case, on his back. Shame he didn't carry them on his hip, like a proper swordsman. A third thought came and he quickly put it into action. He shoved his shoulder at the door, brushed against it and it drew slightly open. He repeated the action and it drew a bit more. Quickly, he shoved his foot in the gap and pulled the door open and slipped in.

"Katar!" Kai shouted at him. He was on the other side of the wagon.

"Kai!"

He ran up to Katar from the other side and they met halfway. "We heard an explosion," _We..._ Kai was alone now, "are you okay?" Katar turned his back to him. "Bleeding hog-monkey... your wrists..."

"No time for that! Cut them loose!" Katar ordered, seeing Nite coming through the intersection window. Then, that little room Nite was in blew up in black smoke. Consuming it fully. Only a silhouette of his wide figure could be seen through the window in the door. Nite was struggling to stand and soon he fell from view.

"Go, go, go!" Katar ordered. No intention to find out what was happening there.

Without much of a plan they thrust ahead and soon they entered the car where this whole craziness began. A slab of earth still remained lodged in the frame where the exit should be. It was crusting, bits of it falling into a pile on the floor. Few people that still lingered here, they eyeballed Katar and Kai and he could not fault them for that. Katar was bringing back danger, but he felt he could breath a little easier. A kind of a milestone was reached - they were back where they started and still safe.

Still, no plan, no idea what to do and no time slow down. Kai slit another door open and wind blasted in Katar's face. They stepped in and Katar looked up at the open hatch leading on the roof. There was a ladder leading up, but Nite didn't consider that when he threw him up there earlier. Maybe they should go back up there and-

Clang! A small blue ball bounced of a ladder. Sumi, he had no time to guess otherwise. He shoved Kai forward, slammed the door behind him and... Bang! With one sharp sound the room filled with smoke, a dark storm of particles dancing around him. He inhaled and stopped his breath halfway when he felt thousands of those particles begin eating away at his nasal tracts and making their way down the pipes. It gnawed there, rising an unbelievable urge to cough, but he knew better than to do that now. His eyes began to water, the irritant was attacking anything it seemed, walking all over him like fire-ants over honey. It was a torture just to bare it standing like he did, his hands on his knees, his body was full of them.

An open hatch sucked the dust out, but it's effects were lasting. He coughed, but that barely helped. The dust remained lodged in his sphincter, the eye-sockets and even under his nails.

A door before him violently slid open. "Katar-" Kai's call quickly got cut by a well placed kick which sent him away.

She grabbed Katar, who was dazed by the dust, coughing, pulled him out of the intersection and then, he realised what was happening. Defiant, he tackled her, throwing them both on the floor. She quickly got on top of him, forcing one of her balls down his throat .

"Stop being such trouble," she said. "You don't know how well you're getting it here. Agh!" He finally managed to kick her off.

Quickly, he spat the ball out and sprang up, dashed away from her, but not three steps later he noticed the same, spit covered ball passing him by and flying into the open intersection. Quickly, he dashed to cover by the door and waited, not long, for the reckless Sumi to pull the trigger.

The blast was instant, a strong punch that swayed the train to one side, slowly. The people inside slid on the floor, crashing one into other. Few grabbed hold of a railing or something other and managed to stay in place. Only those saw the true horror that faced them.

Ground and bushes, and any equipment left by the tracks drew closer as the train was tipping, coming at a sharper and a sharper angle to the earth with chilling slowness. Movement accompanied by shrills of metal being strained, bent, torn all around them. The room grew darker as sunlight was blocked by a moving roof.

The turn sluggishly stopped and the whole cart held at an angle for a horrific moment. The ground was passing below their backs in a blur, a sight that sent some passengers screaming. "Don't move!" shouted down one of those that managed to hold his place above. One clamored up and away from the terror in the windows, kicking others down, another pressed himself against the floor, hoping for all of this to end.

Finally, the room began to tip back. Wheels crashed back on their rails and everyone fell to the floor like wet fish from a net. Exhausted, terrified, but safe.

A current drifted over half-sitting Katar. His hand clung to a wall still, another pushed him into a corner. The scent was refreshing, especially when compared to the crammed sweat assault of this train. He opened his eyes to it and saw that the front of the wagon was missing. Blown off. Ripped away, if not by the blast, then by turn and twist that tempered steel so rarely favored.

He stood, searching for the other half of the train and found it ahead, fleeing from them. Many stood over there, stunned, looking at the gap between the halves, but Katar only searched for one. To his relief, Kai emerged from the fold, seemingly unharmed. There was nothing left to do now, but look at him as the gap between slowly grew, but Kai thought differently.

Suddenly, a flash of anger, of determination lit up his face. He backed away to the middle of the wagon, slowly pushing people out of his way, saying something Katar couldn't hear from far away. _What's he doing?_ Katar had a moment to wonder and then Kai dashed forward. His stare focused, legs quick as ever. Someone tried to catch him, but Kai slipped from their grasp. Two more steps and, it was clear, he was going to- _No,no,no,no,no,no,_ "NO!" Katar threw his arm up, trying to bend and, for once, it worked as he wanted it to. A slab slammed against the back of Kai's wagon, blocking his path.

For an anxious moment Katar expected to see Kai bursting through it, to see him leaping through the air like a suicidal idiot he was about to be. To his small relief, he saw no such thing. Instead, after a panel was pushed out, Kai stood there, mad. Mad, bitter and dolorous.

 _For what?! For stopping a senseless action? For saving his life!? Again?!_ Katar turned from him and to the wagon.

"Okay..." he told Sumi, looking at the damage, at the people of the train he wasn't supposed to be on. "If you're not willing to consider them, then fine, it's better that I just go with you."

She was by that slab of ground Nite lodged in earlier, spinning two small balls between and around her fingers fluently. Sumi stepped closer, saying: "Well-" Suddenly, Nite grabbed her and threw her back. Balls dropped from her hand, shattering against the floor. She was smacked into that slab of earth and it instantly grew around her, trapping her underneath a thick layer of soil.

"I am glad you're making this decision," Nite said to Katar before turning to Sumi.

Everything from her slim figure to the buckles on her shoes was covered perfectly, preserving her form. Even her equipment on the belt was coated with that same precision. The earth was like a sheet that he had pulled on top of her, only her face was left sticking out.

Nite walked up to it, released her right hand and slid his fingers in between hers. "When is it? Two weeks from now?" he asked her. You could barely hear his usually powerful voice over the rushing winds and slowing thud of wheels. "We'll have to postpone it. I hope that is fine by you." He looked at her intently, his posture softer than usual.

"Ha!" she burst out. "You think I'm done?! Oh... this is far from over." She met his stare back and he chuckled. He bent forward, coming close. His head tilted still moving in, lips moments away from touch and he stopped. His hand slipped from her loose fingers and he slammed a fist against the earthen panel. The whole of it started to lean backwards, slowly bowing out of the wagon. Sumi's face dawned with dissatisfaction as soon as she realised what was happening. "Oh! You inbred stack of-" and she fell from earshot.

Nite laughed, all jolly, turning to Katar, signaling: time to leave. Katar looked back over his shoulder. The head of the train was far away now, but he could still notice Kai if he was there. He wasn't. Maybe he calmed down by now, maybe even thought of something. Most likely not.

At the edge of his view he saw the burnt handles of his swords. _I didn't use them once_ , he realised. _All this running and fighting and running again. Not even once._

* * *

Koarsa looked out a window. Over the plains, over a heard of fox-antelopes and halfway to horizon she finally saw the port she was heading towards. Small by her eye, as far as she could make out there was a place for only half a dozen ships, but it was packed with action. One ship was arriving at the moment, the other two were leaving and a crane was hoisting a considerable package into the cargo hold of the fourth one.

Made of metal, the ships shined unlike anything she got to see, even if painted. Boats she was used to were wooden, plain. Reliable for a trip, but simple. Simple to tear through them with bouts of cannon fire, as she painfully found out almost four months ago. She was lucky to survive that, lucky to have crashed near the abbey where she was tended for until she healed. But that was nothing compared to the flood of yesterday. Yesterday pushed her luck to the limit, she guessed with a confidence of an experienced gambler. It was time to bring things back to the reason she started this trip. A sure bet. No luck required.

Out there in the port there was bound to be a merchant ship heading to the south pole, to the new settlement of her people. No way there was no trade route leading there. Knowledge of people settling there wouldn't have traveled so fast if that was not the case, she figured long ago. After a thought out her plan was solid and, remembering recent events, safe by contrast.

She sat back down. Han was a little way further down the car. They haven't talked about what he was going to do next. Didn't seem like he was in the mood and things just settled midway like so.

Koarsa glanced out the window again.

 _Stale.._. she thought and brushed that hissing reflection away. She wanted this: safety, feeling of assurance and community that surely waited her in her tribe.

 _ **Stale**._.. But she needed this. Needed to reach her tribe, find a way to let people know what happened to the rest of the ships that left the north, let Suluk's parents know of his fate. Then build something for herself.

 ** _Stale!_** But what else was there? What else cou-

 ** _STALE!_** The thought overpowered and she shrunk in her seat. Doubting now, thinking the whole thing through again. But what else was there?

"Koarsa!" a young, cracking voice called to her. Koarsa looked up at Kai. She abandoned him in the search for Katar for this chance to get away, but now... _**stale**_... the voice hissed again.

"What happened?"

He explained, so quick and concise that she was left impressed when he ended with a simple: "What can I do?!" Then he glanced at Han, but the man was distant, gone from their group. He turned back to Koarsa.

She stood up, glanced over the plains again at the port and fire nation ships known for their durability. _Stale_ , the voice said and she agreed.

"Come," she turned. "We're stopping this train."


	18. Refuge pt3

Sumi's nose itched. The whole of her face did so in spots actually, but it was the itch on her nose that annoyed her the most. That little ridge at the cupid's bow where her nose started. That was where sweat gathered, where the most of it glued dryly to her skin. She would scratch it, of course, if she had any way of moving her arms or legs or anything, but the only thing she could do, being covered in a solid blanket of soil, was breathe, be furious and move her head from one side to the other to express these modes of being.

Oh... it was insufferable! It was the only thing she could think about now. That and the counting of minutes, hours, days that she will have to be stuck like this with nothing to distract her from the itch. She was alone here, in the plains of stumpy grass beside the tracks. No one to pull her from this mess.

She straightened her neck, whistled a short call and the sound quickly ran across the field. _Where was that idiot, anyway?_ Sumi wondered, but she knew that there was some distance for Kira to cover. But if not for her constant nonsense, none of this would have happened. Sumi would be off the train with bounty in hand and on her feet, just as she planned and not buried in such a way that made her envy shallow graves. At least in one of those one's face wasn't constantly blasted by the sun.

She whistled again, but Kira was still nowhere around. More of a blare this time, her throat was dry, voice coming raspy and pretending to swallow to summon up saliva wasn't doing the trick anymore. Again and again, she glanced down her lying body, look for her canteen and find it, along with some other minor provisions on her belt, all coated in a solid layer of soil.

 _Thanks, Nite! You think of everything,_ she thought and tried to whistle again. _He threw me out!_ _That hippo-cow horn sucking, hog monkey's ass licking stack of shriveled balls thew me out of a moving train! Snatched my bounty right from under me!_ She let her anger surge, maybe it could break her free from the ground. _And the way he did it too, he probably thought it was funny. I'll show him funny... I'll make him laugh till his head explodes!_ she thought and a flame burst above her, stemming from the only place that had any freedom left to it - her throat.

A dark floating figure appeared near horizon. Sun blasted its heavy dose down there too, so the image was distorted, wobbly like a far away reflection from a disturbed pond. Sumi made her call again and the figure sprang up. "Finally," she muttered, then called loudly, "Kira!" The shadow dashed now, swaying from side to side, growing large in seconds.

Soon that distorted figure came better defined. Its legs slowly grew down to the ground so it wasn't just some black orb anymore, floating above the terrain. Sumi saw her wide open mouth, tongue melting down her jaw from too much heat. She stopped before Sumi, excited, but waiting.

"You see this, Kira?" She said to the sun-bear-puma. Kira stood tightly, claws tucked in, tongue slipped back in, hidden behind her jet black fur. "This is all your fault!" She shrivelled down. Her round, stubby ears swung down and hid behind her wide face. "I open a door and where are you?" Sumi asked in capitol letters. Kira looked away. "Well I'll tell you where you are not. You're not standing in front of that train, forcing an emergency stop." Kira came closer and now the little bit of her golden fur shined. A half a ring of gold on her chest, a permanent jewel that always showed, even in the dark. Besides the glint in her eyes it was the most pronounced thing about her. Made her look like a pet of some high prince. She was far from that. "Chasing fox-antelopes around... Don't I feed you enough?" Sumi said and Kira began licking Sumi's face apologetically. "Don't. Stop. Alright! Pft-. Stop it!" And she did. "I know where its been..."

A gust blew past them and Sumi felt the freedom in that, was forced remembered that she remained stuck here. But with Kira at least there were options. Maybe. She looked around again, sighed. "Now what?" Sumi asked, but Kira had no suggestions.

After a few failed ideas, the plan grew simple: have Kira claw her hand free. Grueling work for Kira, to dig her way through densely packed earth, but that hand was mostly free anyway. Nite so graciously uncovered it before she was thrown here. But if they could free a hand this way, then why not an arm? And with Kira helping, why not her whole?

The progress was slow. It took Kira about an hour of clawing, dropping on top or any other way they thought off to chip earth away to get only halfway to Sumi's elbow. Kira grew tired, as she did many times during that hour, and took a break , but then, she sharply glanced up. Slowly, her claws dragged out, her stance shifted, prone - ready to pounce. Her lip stretched so the canines would show, as she growled in low bear-like pitch.

"What is it, girl?" Sumi tried to follow her from her boxed in position as Kira paced about her. "Is somebody there?" Kira was looking somewhere behind her, so she only could listen. Shuffling of feet grew behind her, two people, she guessed, then the sound stopped.

"Is that her?" asked voice number one. A bit coarse, a bit low for a female.

"I think so. I was far away when it happened," said the boyish sounding number two.

Sumi was about to say something, but then she started to move. Ground was shifting around her, everything was moving. She was spinning! And then she stopped as Kira pounced passed her, attacking them. Sumi heard her claws swoosh through the air, heard her howl at these aliens. "No, Kira!" Sumi called out, not really seeing. "Stand down!" But Kira went on behind her, she growled and then that coarse sound was cut after ground rustled and hit something. Kira cried out a short, sharp moan as she and a flurry of rocks slid passed Sumi. She was quick to get up from the rubble like a soldier that she was though. "Kira," Sumi said, seeing she was about to attack again, "Calm!" But she didn't really listen, she compromised. Kira walked over to her, still angry at those two, but stayed by her on guard.

"Kai," said number one. She knew that name, somewhere, "your arm! Let me have a look at that."

"It's a scratch," Kai sounded pissed.

Then the ground moved again and she spun again. She didn't need to turn a full half circle to realise: "Oh... It's you... Well, isn't this wonderful..." Kira instantly reacted to her feeling, started pacing in a half circle before her, acting like a shield.

The girl seemed nervous. Her eyes followed Kira, but the boy's remained fixed on her. There was passion in them, caged in anger. He clutched his arm, a small line of blood ran down it. Good, she thought.

Suddenly, she felt the ground move again. But instead of spinning her, it drowned. Her almost freed hand got pulled under and dragged down. Her hands, feet and torso were pulled down. Kira lept at them. "Kira, stay!" and the animal turned back to her, lost. Her stare bouncing between her and the attackers. Eventually she settled by her side, barking at them.

"Boy, what are you doing?" she asked, but Kai stayed silent.

Moving further and further down she felt herself begin to stand, like she was floating underwater, with only her head still sticking out. She tried to fight it, push against with all her strength, but it wasn't her that the ground listened to and when it stooped, she stood outstretched to all five points, like an animal exhibit at Wan Shi Tong's library.

"Oh," she laughed, a bit shocked, a bit surprised, "you're a cruel one." She tried to wiggle herself a bit, but could only move the bare minimum her clothing allowed. "Are you always like that?" The girl beside him looked troubled, she didn't really like what he did. He scoffed, walked passed and away from her and the girl passed her after him. "You'll never find him!" She taunted and the boy stopped for a moment. _There it is._ "Not while Nite has him."

"Yeah... whatever..." he said dismissively and his steps continued moving farther.

"I could help you with that," she said in a sing-songy way, mocking. Kai kept on walking, but the girl stopped him. Sumi listened to them bickering in far away whispers. "They're probably not even a day's walk away," she egged them on.

Kira tensed up, her hair pitched up when they turned back, even a golden half-ring on her chest, but Sumi kept her sitting. "How?" the girl asked. Nervous.

"Kira, here, can track them."

"We don't trust you," the boy said.

"Oh! I'm shocked!"

"Fine..." Kai raised his hand and sank Sumi deeper. Her neck stretched, head pulled into an even tighter space.

"Okay! Okay!" Her voice came as stretched as her neck. "Let's talk. We'll talk," she offered and was pulled back up a touch. Took a breather as they came before her again, looming from above. "Oh... he's so cute when he's angry," Sumi said to the girl, Kai raised his hand again, but she stopped him. "And not that little boy cute."

"Talk." She said from on high.

"You want to find them, we want to find them. Makes sense to me."

"And what when we do find them?"

"You won't find them, Nite's too smart for you two, dumbos."

"We did just fine before you," said that little bulldog.

"Sure you did. What? You're going to walk the tracks for the rest of the day? He is obviously off them by now. You're doing crap without me." She talked him down, before turning where the decision really lied. "You won't find them, girl. You just won't. You need us."

They talked again, but she didn't have to wait long, she already knew their decision. "Fine, do it," the girl said and the ground shifted around her again. Slowly, she rose from the ground. Sand and rock peeled of her like a layer of dead skin. _Hand first. Hand first!_ She silently begged. _If he freed one arm first then she could- Yes!_ Her arm came free and instantly she slashed it through the air up to her face. Furiously, she scratched under her nose and released that awful itch. _Yes!_ she celebrated and soon the celebration went wider. She itched everywhere and everywhere the release was amazing. Finally, she was free from that tyranny of itch. Finally.

When she was done she had her hand ran through her belt, touching the home-made ceramics on it, still there- _useful.-_ , but her hand stopped at the flask. She pulled it off her belt and gulped down the remaining water, enjoying as little of it as there was.

 _Time to leave,_ she figured and pulled a handkerchief up to her nose in a pretend sneeze. Her other hand ready to snap open a smoke bomb on her belt. Handkerchief clutched, covering her nose and mouth; hand ready; legs- Legs..? She found them hard to move, so she glanced down. "What's that?" Her feet were held down by earthen shackles.

"You didn't think we would let you go free, did you?" the girl said. _Probably her idea_ , she thought and pulled a cigarette out of her pocket, snapped a flame over her finger. _So much for freedom._


	19. Refuge pt4

The sun was hauntingly hot. Omnipresent. Overpowering the dry ground and splitting it into countless fractures, making them hard and rough to walk on with Katar's wasted away shoes and he barely had the strength to shuffle his feet across the stone. Nite was pushing even in this heat, but it was not the prison walk that had him taken and on edge. It was the flare of fantasy around him.

He saw creatures now, beings floating around them. Bright things, little or not; no fur, no skin, no bone, just various shades of light, vaguely bordered, like flames are. Some had eyes, some had ears, some had wings, but they were not birds and they were not animals. _These things.._. he saw them and they saw him. They kept a distance, moving around, where they should go straight, just to avoid him, just to get out of his reach.

He had a short episode like this yesterday, in the caves. But now he started seeing them everywhere. Breaching into his world, a dozen at a time. Floating, going about their alien business. One of them, one whale of a creature, shot to the sky out of the ground right before him. Nor earth, nor gravity affected this orca-like being, it rose to the clouds and pushed ahead with tentacles for a tail.

Were he more naive he'd say they are spirits. But tales of spirits were for children, old drunks and sham fortune tellers. No. He got the feeling that what was happening here was a continuation of something far more toxic. The slow burn of a mind venom he was subjected to half a year ago. These spirits was just another side effect that made his fingers shake. He had to see his hands. He must! He must check, for this could not be real.

"Do not try it," Nite said.

"Try what?"

"Try to run." He looked forth, seeming not aware of the floating beasts around them and they, in turn, ignored him. He continued, his voice tone came fixed and dull: "I am aware of your intentions, they will not-" he cut himself off. "Just don't," and grew more lively now. "Just keep to your word and I will keep to mine."

"My word?"

"What you said on the train, about considering other people."

"Jail... Considerate."

"Far better than this predicament. And yes, yes it is. Half a year is enough of damage. I'm taking us on a detour around so we don't happen up on as many people."

"And for what I didn't do..." Katar felt a need to argue that against Nite, though he felt lightheaded from the heat. He just needed to convince him.

"That is not for me to decide."

"Doesn't matter who decides."

"So, what you're saying is, life's not fair," he said and Katar could smell the sly tone of that statement.

"Well, isn't that big-hearted..." Sun was beating him over the shoulders. Breath left harder and hotter when it came in. "By all of that," he kept up, thought it was coming harder to think, to speak "you were sure quick to leave that train wreck behind."

"No one seemed badly wounded so we left."

"And what about dozens of wagons we left behind?" he said and almost phased out. The heat was really getting inside his head and raised a strange splitting. He felt as if he was being pulled, like somebody grabbed him from the deep inside and pulled up while the rest of him stayed. He got the sense sometimes, mostly after he woke up.

"Do not be silly, Katar. Do you really think that people won't notice half the train had gone away? They'll go back and haul it to port with the rest of it. Look at yourself," Nite lifted a canteen off himself. "Drink up," he offered, but Katar didn't notice. He was stuck in a walking animation that was about to fail. One leg caught the other and he fell to the ground.

"What thym essss t?" he slithered out, but couldn't understand his own question.

While the sun of the solstice beamed down he saw one last little bright creature creep up from a crack in the ground. It stared at him until he faded.

* * *

She wasn't giving up hope, but some rest would be nice. They've been walking for hours now, which was to be expected. She and Kai got of the train significantly farther from where Katar did, but the pace they held to was a bit much. From the moment they started their search they hadn't stopped since and her legs bore most of that, which had sunk so far up her torso, she could taste dirt on the road. She was tired and, obviously, so was he.

"Why are we stopping?" Kai asked.

Koarsa looked with disbelief. "We've been walking for hours. We need to rest."

"We can't!" his voice cracked from dryness. Clearly, he was as focused and determined now as he was the moment the two of them got of the train. Half of that cheerful kid she saw was gone and another kind of junky took his place. "What if Katar... and Nite..."

"And Nite what?!" She shouted him down. "We know they're alive, we know he's safe."

"He is a man of his word," Sumi interjected.

"Now, please! Just give me a few minutes," Koarsa said and sat on the railway.

Kai, Koarsa, Sumi and her big black cat, all four now faced each other, standing or sitting in a rare circle. Kai compromised, but he didn't let himself calm down. He kept carrying that ball of anxiety within him and it turned his casual carelessness into recklessness. It was getting harder and harder to approach him. She? She stood, hands folded, smirking at Kai, who tried to ignore it. Sumi was getting a rise out of him and the more he pretended not to react, the more she laughed at him. It was only fair, for Koarsa to try something too.

"So, " she started, "how come you know so much about Nite?"

Sumi glanced at her, her weighted shoes were left untied. She dashed her lip sideways with contempt. "Competition," she barely mustered out.

"Hmm... And for how long are you _competing_ now?"

"None of your business. " She glared at Koarsa.

"Okay..." She raised her hands.

"We ready?" Kai said after a while and Koarsa slowly stood in response.

"Ready."

They both turned to Sumi who stayed still, looking at Kira. "Sumi," they called, "we're going." But she just kept looking her cat in the eye. Then, she nodded her head sideways and the cat launched at Koarsa. Quickly, Kai threw stones at her, but the cat dodged under. Koarsa was startled backwards, fell on the ground and Kira swiftly placed herself over her. Threatening, but waiting. Sumi threw one of her balls at distracted Kai, it bounced of his shoulder. Franticly, he smacked it down, but not before it exploded and a cloud of dust enveloped Kai whole. He started coughing a moment later.

She got them both pinned, and now, that Sumi was back in control, she took her time. She started breaking off the mold off of her shoes, picking them apart piece by piece, which proved harder than she expected. But suddenly, a flurry of stone flew at her and she dodged it, barely. Then came another and another. It was Kai! He knew where she was and now she was forced to evade his attacks. You could see them flying out of the dust cloud in between coughs.

Sumi was in complete loss. She desperately wanted to free her shoes, but Kai kept on attacking her and left her with no time to do so. And as wind pushed, it started to pull the cloud away and he grew more and more accurate.

She had no choice. If she wanted to leave, she had to dismount. Quickly, Sumi pulled her feet out of her shoes and ran away with Kira. Leaving nothing, but her boots sticking from the ground with open laces.

* * *

Katar hissed barely audibly, pulled his small head away. A surgical hook with a line attached loomed over him. A bit much for a ten year old.

"Don't pull back," Jian told, though he barely saw him. The candle and the metal hood designed to amplify its strength blinded him white. "Come on." Jian's fingers peeked from behind the hood, encouraged. Katar shifted closer and looked down.

"You're not gonna look?" Jian pointed to a mirror before Katar, showing his open scar.

"No."

"If you're not gonna look, how will you know if it's fixed?" Katar stayed silent. "Well, if you're not going to look..." He put the mirror away. "So, you wanna tell me what happened?"

Katar tried not to think about it, the thread going under his skin, but it was very hard to ignore. It made him wince and hiss at their movement. At least it masked that bitter stare he looked at his father with. Jian wasn't going to be home for long. A month at the most and then it's back to the war zone, and never back again. But at this moment neither knew that Jian will die doing "the right thing."

"Nothing," Katar said, but it came a mumble. Biming and her buddies were at him again. Her harassment came in waves; everyone in the class knew when it was their turn. Today was his.

"Huh?" Jian asked.

"I fell," he answered and they both stayed silent. Flame flicked before his face, with faint popping that kept it burning.

"Did you at least win?" Katar stayed silent. "That bad, huh?" The hook went in deep this time, hurt him. He couldn't help his tears come up. "What's the name?"

"Biming," he said and his voice too sounded watery. "Biming," he repeated, more firmly this time. "Ha! Well that's just plain easy! You just-"

"She's a girl, dad."

"Oh..." his hand stopped midway, "but that's a boy's name."

"Yeah..." Katar pointed over his eye, at a wound that was almost fixed. "I know."

"Hmm..." Jian came over with scissors, cut the line. "Then you'll need something different." Jian cleaned the area with a wet towel one last time.

"Like what?" Katar pushed the candle from his eye, turning the hood away. It will be a while till the sunspot disappears from his vision.

"Books."

"Books?" Katar laughed, but when he looked at Jian he found him staring.

"Yeah. Books and stuff. Biology, so you know where to aim. Why do you think I reread mine all the time, huh?" Jian smiled sharply, then reached over the table, caught Katar's cheek in one hand. "You're one regular soldier, aren't you?" he said.

"Why?"

His thumb pressed in Katar's cheek and the build up of water went running down his face. "Well, here we are, sewing your brow, eyes full of water, yet not a peep from you. That's some soldiering right there," he said and ruffled Katar's hair. Katar pushed the hand away. "What?! You think you're to old for this now?" Jian said and attacked his hair again.

"Dad, stop," he said pushing away, but found Jian at him again; other hand. Blocked that one too, but the first one was back; and they just kept coming. Helplessly, he fought back, tried to push Jian away, but he was too heavy. Told to stop again, but he wouldn't listen. Tried to defend one on one, but they always came from a different place, it seemed. ...up front, once on the side, once on a shoulder, then at the back of his head...

"No!" Katar giggled. "Stop it!" He said and pushed more forcefully, but instead of him he pushed himself back. His chair tipped over and crashed flat on its back and they both just started howling. So loud, so pompous and mad, that his mother was surely to come by the door just to check if everything was well. So it took time for mood to calm again.

Jian walked over to him, still giggling, pulled Katar to his feet, but the kid quickly embraced his father. A bit shocked, Jian answered back with the same. Gentle, simple, warm, They stood there; stuck in time, it felt.

 _Too long,_ Katar woke to the moment, _it wasn't this long._ _Not when it really happened._ _This was another fabrication!_ In his memory, they'd already separated and the scene moved on, but now, now it stopped. It played with him, it mocked him. _The Avatars..._ the state Rohan left Katar in... Whatever this thing was that was happening to him, it was toying with him, with his memories and taking them over. Katar already knew that stopping midway, as the memory did now, was only a threat. A threat to take his father away. It threatened to take his father way. It threatened to take his father way. _It..._ Katar could barely think past that terrifying thought.

Now, in the midpoint, the memory left Katar hugging a ghost which he could still feel. If only the threat wasn't so real he could prevent himself from clinging tighter, he could preserve this moment, still feel the warmth, but his hands tightened and the warmth fled, leaving him alone in a room which was just as he remembered. The candlelight, unkempt bed and Jian's bag left open on the floor with books he was about to hand over. The tricks Katar's mind played on him now...

The door blew open and Katar was thrown backwards. Water came surging through the door-frame in to the small room, filled it whole in mere seconds. He swam up through the strong current, searching for pockets of air, but those filled up quickly too. Frantic, he looked around the room and was met with unnatural resistance, like he was trudging through waist-high mud instead of water. He felt it press against his chest, push him, drag him down through the floor and there was nothing to do but move through it.

He glanced down when he was on the other side and could see the blue-tinted abyss below. It was calling him, with its hundreds of voices, a distorted mismatch chorus he was terrified of. He turned and fought, swam up to let up the pressure, the dragging force and its calling from beneath.

He breached the surface, but the force remained. Now it tore him to the side on a powerful river with a tight leash. Not sparing punches it banged him from one side to the other, from tree branch to tree trunk, from tree trunk to rock he got smacked as the river snaked its way onward like smoke over a candle, the heat of which filled the room Katar was suddenly in. Hot vapor filled his lungs long before he realised he wasn't wet anymore, he wasn't drowning anymore.

Katar checked. A look at his arm and he found that it has doubled. Sort of. Two arms growing, splitting from one into a "V" shape from the elbow up. Both left, both with five digits, both moving in perfect unison. As he caught his hand doubled like this they began slipping into each other. Back into one, singular arm.

"I am aware," he said and the hot vapor of the room, the fire around him disappeared after a small rumble. The walls crumbled away into darkness and he was left to float there alone.

Katar calmed a bit. The reality check was working. It dissipated the dream and soon he was going to go back to his world. To reality. _What was the reason I fell down here again?_ he wondered and glanced at his arm reflexively. _No... No!_ He was still here! His hand was still split! Still dreaming!

Katar watched his doubled hand and it began slipping inwards, two arms back into one, singular arm. "I am aware," he repeated and still, nothing. His hand was not real, this world was not real!

Could Katar have waited too long to collapse it? Was he trapped here now!? "I am aware!" and he's still here! He tried slapping his alien hand, shock it into reality maybe, but it was a ghost and the fingers ran straight through. "No, no, no, no, no! I am aware!" and still... Nothing. The only tool he had in here... nothing. Katar's hand slipped back together again and so did the room around him. The room of _this_ sorry episode.

Rohan laid on the floor, motionless. Katar's swords beside him, split in two. _That's wrong,_ he thought. There was also daylight coming from the window. The details were mashed together, it seemed, pulled apart or were just plain wrong. When Katar lifted a side of a book and let his fingers slide of it, it didn't fall. It stayed still at the exact angle he left it in. He tried forcing it down, but now it didn't move; tried willing it to fall, but for some reason it stayed locked in that acute angle.

Katar turned away. Maybe he had to walk it out. Maybe it would bring him back once it's over. And there was only one way this memory ends, for now. He walked over to the door, drew it open.

A strange forest laid outside. Trees with branches sprouting from fat, almost slick looking trunks; thick mist dancing over their roots, covering them from sight. It wasn't white or pure. Nothing was stainless, no color was just simple. Everything had a tint of beige, like a cloth he was forced to look through.

Katar's knees weakened. Mixing up memories was one thing, but now his mind was straight up making up places. Places that, when examined, didn't make sense.

Katar stepped ahead and the mist swam away like it was actually alive, avoiding him like a predator, revealing the ground covered sunk in ankles high water. The ground under it was barren and level. The water was clean, clear, somehow it failed to grow stale even though it was not moving. It was chilly, not really comfortable to walk in barefooted, but the air above was sultry and almost brought sweat to his brow.

Visible, yet hidden below that mist; cold to the feet, yet his arms were gathering heat; luscious by the trees yet bare on the ground. He could not smell it, he barely heard it. This place brought up a disconnect within him which Katar did not like.

He glanced back, where the room he stepped down from was supposed to be. Gone. Only a monkey in a tunic sat in its place. Its feet were crossed in a lotus position and its eyes were closed.

"Wha-" He started to utter in strange bewilderment and the monkey howled: "Silence!" and scared Katar a step back.

It talked! A monkey in full clothing, talked! And now it mumbled nervously, voice full of contempt. It scoffed, regarding him with one eye before going back to its business.

 _This is it. I've finally gone away. Shinning creatures, splitting hands and talking monkeys in a dream with cold feet and sweaty palms. Enjoy your last moments of being clear-headed about this..._

"Katar," a voice with an audible smile came from behind and he turned.

"Rohan..."

"You made it," Katar heard him say and thought: . _..talking monkeys... talking monkeys and now - ghosts..._ He slapped himself, ordering to: "Wake up!" Slapped the other side and ordered again.

"Katar..."

Katar jumped to the ground, scooped up some ground water and splashed it on himself. "I am aware!" It was brutally cold, but it didn't pull him from this mad dream. He reached for water again, but-

Not moving his arms or feet Rohan dashed up to him, then grabbed Katar by the shoulders before he could back away from that strange and terrifying sight. "Katar, calm down!" Rohan got him tight, determined to stare him down. "You're okay," he calmed Katar.

"I'm not!"

"Yes, you are."

"But... how? I mean, the river, the monkey," The monkey raised it's eyebrow, then laid it back down, "this place... You!"

"I said, calm down. Sheesh..." Rohan said and held a long pause.

Katar glanced at his hand again and it was his hand, still was no scar. There was no doubling either, no dancing colors or transparency. "I am aware," he said and the world didn't come down in pieces.

"You're safe. See?" Rohan smiled down to him.

Slowly they both rose, Katar was looking now, more inquisitive then baffled. "So this is real?"

Rohan laughed, "Yes."

"And this world is real?"

"...yes. It's different, but it's real."

"And you are..?"

He sighed, "Listen-"

"No, you listen," Katar said, his voice low, empty.

Quickly, his fist sank into Rohan's stomach. Rohan almost jumped and fell on all fours. Face red, gasping for air which may not even exist here. "Yeah..." his voice turned raspy, jumped up a few octaves, "I guess I deserve that."

"I had it all figured out," Katar shouted. "I knew where I was going to go, I knew what I was going to do, I knew who I was going to be. And then..." Now he failed to keep shouting, his voice trembled, "you come and... and... you die."

 _Stop,_ he thought to himself, _this may be another trick._ His mind may have found another way to fool itself. D _o reality checks even work anymore?_ Still, it felt right to let this all go, to finally let his thoughts fall out like this. Even if they fell on a ghost; or a ghost of a ghost.

"Yeah, we have her Majesty Guifei to thank for that," the ghost said bitterly, slowly rising from the ground.

"Guifei?" Katar asked, but he wasn't that surprised.

"But I'll admit, what I did was pretty harsh. Broke stuff I shouldn't have even touched. But that's why I pulled you here," Rohan grabbed him, confident and full. The monkey beside them grumbled, ready to shout again. Rohan turned to it, "We're leaving, okay?!" he said and that creature calmed.

"Pulled?" Katar played along. He could not force himself to wake up from this. Just get to the end, he thought.

"Yeah. I've tried several times before, but, as Rinzen said, this can only work on the solstice, when the bridge between our worlds is the shortest."

"Then where am I?" he asked, but could already guess the answer.

"Katar," he chuckled, raising an eyebrow at his denseness, tightening the grip on his shoulder, "we're in the spirit world."

Swiftly, the ground beneath them began to skid, slipping beneath their feet. Short water he stood in just a second ago was shortchanged by earth and grasslands, and anything in between as they slid from one area to the next. Out of the swamp and into the forest, through the plains that surrounded a humongous tree and onto a field beside a sharp-edged mountain, the world span around them and he didn't feel it touch him. No worn feet, no exhaustion, no sickness. They've traveled so far so quickly and he felt nothing of that sort. _I must be mad_ , he thought, _no doubt. When the mountain comes to you and not the other way around..._

"Do you look beat," Rohan said regretfully, eyes wondering from Katar's long nails to the rags he wore. "Is being the avatar really that bad?"

"The avatar?"

"Yeah, you're the avatar. I thought you would have figured this out by now."

"You were the avatar."

"And then I made you into one. You weren't a bender, now you are one. You weren't the avatar, now..."

Katar heard the words and pieces fell in their places, but all they did was fill his head with anger. "Is that what you think?" Ghost or not, he was still infuriatingly wrong. "Is that what you think happened?! You come- you burst in, do some crippled space magic and poof! I'm the avatar now. That's all? No consequences, nothing. You scrambled my head, Rohan! Do you even-" he stammered, "Are you-" he tried again and failed again, clenched his fists till he calmed at least a little. "There are whole days when I can barely think. When I'm just wondering automatically, head full of water, just to keep that thing back you decided to hound on me."

"You mean the avatar state?"

"Because, if let that thing loose..."

"Then fix it." Rohan said and Katar just started laughing.

"I don't even know that its broken!"

"Of course, it is. What I did that night wasn't exactly natural. It's the reason why it's broken. It's a defense mechanism, a last moment reflex. You're supposed to channel the power of all previous avatars. But there is no directing force there now, its just muddy, nobody knows what to do."

"And when it happens, it's like I'm thrown to the back of the crowd. Somebody else is using my body, somebody else acts with my hands until my body fails. And when I wake up," he said and stopped mid sentence, not sure if he should express the thought. If one says it, in some way, it becomes real, more feasible, more concrete. It was better to deny it, shut it away in some dark corner. Then, maybe, it would go away and not shine greedily from that corner.

"Please, don't keep this from me," Rohan said and for a second Katar thought that he was real and not some plain shadow. Right here and not in his head.

"When I wake up," he began, "I'm afraid that... that one of you will take my place."

There it was, let out and real. Now it was only a matter of time before it happened. He'd be gone by then most likely, gone underwater and disappeared. Maybe it already happened, maybe this was where he disappeared to. He checked the hand, it was his, but scar-less. Is the scar a part of him or is it not? Because of it is... No. He'd rather not think about it.

Rohan stood aside a while, rightfully silent. "I ..." he tried. "I didn't know. I'm sorry, I didn't know," he then repeated childishly. "I didn't know this could happen, but you won't have to live this, I promise. We'll fix this."

"Is there a way?!"

"There is," he smiled shortly, "but, i'm sorry, its not now, not like this."

"What do you mean?"

"You came here... I _pulled_ you in and so, you will not be here long enough. Just till the solstice ends. You must come here on your own. On your own strength."

"I barely got here now."

"Well, there's one way that may work. Do you remember the painting with the koi fish? Rinzen says that it should work as a conduit."

"The painting? But that's all the way back in Taku..."

"All the way back? Were are you now?" Rohan laughed.

"Just got over the Wall."

"The Wall?! Are you stupid?" he exploded and Katar was forced to meet the intensity.

"I'm desperate!"

And Rohan backed down. "Then let us fix this mess I've made. Come back here and I'll be ready," said the ghost.


	20. Refuge pt5

The chill can come quick when the wind is harsh and the sun shines rarely. That was the recent pattern of weather, but it wasn't why Nite's hair stood straight on his forearm. For the last ten minutes he's been watching Katar, opposite to him over an empty fireplace. Katar laid perfectly still now, but not that long ago he stood up and started shouting at someone.

He seemed barely awake, his eyes weren't even open and he didn't even speak in full words, just random sounds he decided to belt out. They came and Nite could swear he heard a hundred, maybe a thousand voices speak them all scrambled while some strange golden light beamed from his palm. Similar lights wondered behind shut eyelids.

Nite watched all that from aside. Nervously waiting for something more aggressive to happen, but Nite just tired himself waiting as Katar came exhausted and collapsed on his back. He was hesitant to check on the boy after that, Nite could hear him mumbling from afar and watched his eyes still flashing and that would have to be enough to keep to his own word. What felt more important was to restrain him. Hands and feet to the ground and wait.

After a while, Katar took a deep breath, the light behind his eyelids grew stronger and passed like wave. His body relaxed, sagged and Nite felt that he could do that too - let the tension go. Soon, Katar blinked open.

"You're one tense sleeper," Nite said cautiously.

"So I've been told..." Katar said and tried to move his hands. He found them confined under a layer of earth.

"Do not try to free yourself."

"But I have to."

"No, no you do not."

"I have to see my hands!"

"No," Nite said and Katar sighed with rough frustration, came anxious, like an addict, eyes strutting like a jitter-rat. "Why would you need that so feverously?"

"I just do. Please. You can restrain them again later."

"Fine."

Slowly, Katar pulled them both before himself and the mild madness started. He looked at them, from every angle, carefully inspecting, tapping, pinching them, bent them at the joints like they're somehow new to him. Katar then mumbled something with relief and let his arms fall to the ground, where they were quickly locked away. His head fell backwards and eyes locked onto the sky. Whatever fever he had, it seemed gone now.

"What does it mean, when your eyes glow like that?"

Katar glanced at him. "It's the avatar state, I think."

"No," he laughed, "but really." But Katar stayed silent. Looking up, maybe thinking. "You don't want to tell me? That's fine, I just need to know if there will be more of that."

"No, there shouldn't be."

"Good." Nite stood, took two horse shoe shaped metal cuffs out of his bag and walked over to him. They were simple things he had made just for this type of occasion of uncertainty. A metal tube of small radius bent into a "U" shape. "Now give me your right hand," he said and took it.

Katar had a strange scar on the palm, an old but serious burn running across with creases and dips. It looked like a disfigured pair of lips slightly yawning. A simple scar as of now but just a few minutes ago it was glowing gold. Nite had to check if there was some residual glowing left in there, he didn't really know what he was dealing with here, but for now things seemed on the side of normal.

Moving on, Nite took one horse shoe shaped metal tube and put it on Katar's wrist. The prisoner looked at him like he couldn't understand what the thing was for, but when Nite used his earthbent fingers like pliers and led the ends from the "U" shape into a firm bracelet Katar nodded in a small moment of solace. These were put on, so he couldn't get away.

Nite let the hand go and as it fell down the handcuff rattled like it should have. Katar took a closer look at it through small gaps left purposefully on the inner side of the brace. "Is that glass?"

Nite strained, but he bent the glass inside the bracelet so it lifted Katar's arm with it. "It is."

"Wait... You can glassbend?!" Katar tried his best to stay his arm down. "How hard is it to learn glass?" Nite chuckled.

"If you try something," Nite worked to bend the glass again. It's a difficult process as he had to visualise it moving like a liquid, water inside an ice cube. Move too little and the glass will bounce back, move too much and it will shatter. But Nite was getting good at it, he managed to pull glass through the gap in the metal so it pushed and strained Katar's arm in a sharp way, "I'll cut your arms off," he said firmly and waited for Katar to turn afraid. Good. "Now the other one," he said, but Katar seemed pressed by the thought. "Come on, now" Nite encouraged.

"Nite, you hodgemonkey's ass!" He heard her from afar. Didn't need to check who it was, he knew her by voice.

"Sumi," he turned, dropping Katar's hand down so he can imprison it again, "what took you so long?" he laughed.

"Ugh!" she burst. "Don't you dare!" She strode towards them, air around her almost steaming. Kira reluctantly followed. He never liked that cat; the feeling was mutual. "After what you pulled."

"What? I thought you wanted this to be fun." He laughed and made her even more angry.

"You threw me out a moving train!"

"You tried to do the same to me!" Katar injected.

"Shut it." She rose her hand, only a threat.

"I had fun," Nite said calmly. "Did you?"

"No!"

"No falsehoods?"

"No."

"Two weeks from now, you will not laugh about this?"

"No... well, maybe."

"Well, there you go." Nite laughed again and turned away.

"Who says I'm done?"

Nite looked back at her, intrigued, then confused. "Where are your shoes?"

* * *

As the sun hid beneath the shade, so did his mood darken. If Kai was closed off before, now he was completely shut in. Shut in and shut off. And the chaos within only seemed to rise. It bounced of his inner walls and split in two and bounced again until it filled him complete. That was as far as she saw into him as he was the type to wear emotions on his sleeves and she did not try them. Anything could bring him over the edge. Especially if the push came from someone responsible for Sumi's running away. Didn't really say anything to him either, but neither did he and he should have. She knew he should have, but did not dare to touch that wall on brink of rupture.

As much as it pained her to see it, she had no tools delicate enough to approach this type issue. _Maybe, it will die down_ , she hoped and looked ahead. _Maybe it'll die down, because we'll never find him there_. Another forest lay four, maybe five hundred steps further. A flash of light stroke there, unmistakable. _An explosion!_ she thought as its dulled bang finally reached her ears almost two full seconds later.

"It's them." Kai bolted ahead.

* * *

Shouting, clawing and explosions, boulders, like cannonballs, flying passed... These two were off this world! And Katar was in the first row for all of it. Hands buried, he had no way to pull them out, to get out. As hard as he tried he wasn't good enough to just will earth to move, he needed some symbol, some movement of fingers and feet to make that happen and his hands, to the tips of their fingers, were constrained.

Boom! Came an explosion and his ears began to ring, dulled everything. Nite was thrown, he rolled, stopped beside Katar - face down.

"What?! Is that it, you puss?" Sumi taunted from afar.

Nite coughed painfully, chuckled to himself, like he actually enjoyed that and pushed himself up. Came back into it again. More grunts, more explosions.

 _...GET OUT!_ Katar screamed in his head. _Find a way out!_ and he shut his eyes, tried his best not to listen to the circus around just to focus, just to think.

 _Inner rhythm,_ he remembered. _Everything has its inner rhythm, an implicit emotion that guides it,_ or at least that's how he understood it.

Fire is passionate, he figured that early on, but what about earth? It's strong, he thought and tried to channel that. Nothing. It's too vague for him and so the ground around his hands remained he same.

 _Damn it! rethink this, or you'll stay a prisoner of one of those two. What else? It's strong, it's resourceful, it's tough, yet compassionate. ...No. It's tough because it's compassionate!_ The conclusion came and for a moment his head felt light, queasy. So rarely a thought came clear in his head now that he even felt a rush from it. With all the exploding circus around him Katar actually smiled.

Katar looked down to his arms, where they disappeared into the ground like he was part spirit, and focused. Focused on the emotion, on it's rhythm, on how subtly it affected his body. His chest began to swing further by his breaths, but arms and legs felt looser, colder. And as he focused he noticed how the ground around him felt firm. Not just were he was but two, five steps away. He just felt it. Even felt the movements of Nite, Sumi, and Kira around him, the vibrations they pressed through the ground. A second more of keeping in tune and he began to bend, and it halted. The connection cut off completely. He took a breather, tried again and it cut off again as soon as he tried to bend.

 _Damn! So close,_ he knew, _maybe I need something stronger, something more clear_. One cannot feel sad for lost foxhounds so strongly that he can bend the earth. And in truth, something like this did work before. He managed to tie firebending, passion, love to the person he felt that for. Which was why he didn't enjoy firebending too much, but maybe the idea could work here as well. And there was only one right person he could truly tie that kind thinking to, only one he could show rough compassion to.

He thought of the first day they met, on some street in his village. Kai was shouting at a vendor, something about him not being fair and the man was just not having it. He pushed Kai back and he fell out of the booth. A mask, painted white, fell beside Kai, one of many from the booth. More shouting, this time from the vendor, his hand dismissing Kai.

The scene gathered attention and everyone was eyeballing Kai, judging, Katar saw. Kai only needed to glance around to catch these people in the act. Katar was the last of them all when their eyes met. There was not much strength left in Kai when, just a glimpse of hope from a beggar on a street. His own nerves tingled while watching. The tips of his fingers chilled and he smiled to the boy.

The ground moved barely and Katar finally pulled his arms out of the ground. Nite and Sumi were further away, but he could clearly hear them, Sumi shouting and Nite laughing in the echo. Silently, he slipped away and as soon as he walked out of sight his careful steps turned into lunges, then jumps and leaps. He looked back and no one was following.

 _Yes!_ He finally ran away from them, from this mad day from start until now. All this day there was nothing else, but explosions, wreckage, tension and breaking of tension, but no release. Not for him. He need no more of that. No more shouting, no more being tossed around like an unearned trophy. He only needed now to run away as far as possible and-

And he stopped again. This time, there's an obstacle blocking his way. A growling, snarling obstacle that paced across his path, claws popping in and out its paws every other step. There was half a ring of gold on its chest, golden fur on black all around.

Katar stepped forward and the cat went against him. It's shriekly gnarr now more aggressive, more assaulting to the ear. He stepped back and Kira stayed. Slowly, he reached around the shoulder for his fathers swords and she moaned at him: Don't do that; and he let his hand down. If he carried them on his hip, like a proper swordsman, he'd be able to draw them out quickly. But they're on his back for support.

Kira didn't stop moaning and the sound was too peculiar to ignore. At one moment she seemed to simply moan, the other to howl and even purr all in wide range. From lower and deeper to higher and shrill, and when it broke it did so repeatedly and rapidly, like she got cut off midway and came back again quickly.

Katar took a step back: nowhere to go. There was a river running beside the road, but he can't bend that. Not effectively. And earthbending was hit or miss until today. He's no match for Kira, not a match for anyone good at this or with any kind of reflex. And that moan or howl, or whatever... that's not just some random noise, he realised. That's a call. She's calling for Sumi, so she can come here and they can round him up. Again. There was just no running from this. All of it just kept coming back stronger and fiercer than before. He'll have to fight this, fight the beast, he figured. If he wanted to get out, he had to.

Quickly, he tried to earthbend. It didn't work. Kira pounced at an opening failure left and Katar barely dodged her coming claw. Bending was flimsy, but he was thought of the sword and his hand was swift with them, even if they were on his back. He drew them, split them, came at the beast. Kira's puma-side worked quickly, she dodged right under his swing and quickly ran around to his back, slashed at his feet. Katar rolled to the side, catching the edge of her claw, stood and quickly found her, pointed a sword to keep a perimeter.

They circled each other. Not slowly, no. Two seconds for half a circle, then they switched direction, and switched again trying to catch an opening on the other side. Neither gave one. For a while. Katar came swinging from on high, a bluff as he tried to distract her while coming at her from the bottom. Kira saw through it, jumped over and at him teeth and all. He defended with a broadside of the first sword and Kira smacked it out of his hand. She overdid it though, the action spun her and she landed backside to the enemy.

Katar gripped Kira's bottom, hoping he'd be able to hold her for a moment, maybe even toss her if he had the strength, but his fingers sunk too deep for comfort. When his fingers clenched in he felt almost no resistance from the skin, her fur simply creased into his palms and he felt how loose it was. Unattached to her body, it seemed.

While being held Kira jumped, turning inside her loose skin and clawed at Katar with a furious roar. Scared, Katar stumbled back and fell. Seeing her fangs coming he cowered and bent a rocky shell around himself.

Outside Kira felt restless. She paced round him in half circles as well as he could tell through vibration and sound inside his shell. Kira clawed at it a few times and stopped as it didn't seem to work. Then she moaned again; that beary, broken call for assistance. But even that did nothing to calm the beast outside. He herd her run up and stand on his shell. She clawed again, still useless, then she roared at him through his shell, knowing he could hear her, but Katar didn't run out. So she started barging in.

He heard her jump, leap off of the shell and for a second there stood silence.

Thud! As her heals came crashing down, sending a shockwave down to him. Thud! As she leapt higher now and came down even stronger. THUD, again! And his shell cracked in. A piece fell in and her sharp snout quickly found the gap. She clawed at it, roared through it excitedly, but the shell still held. Katar kept his hands to it, holding, though he was unsure, being so on edge, just what he was doing. Then the shell came, it came around him quicker than he knew he could do. The stress of that moment trapped him know and as Kira lifted her paws he got to watch his demise through the gap. Her fur flowing, her claws ready, her breath excited, her- But, no! Something hit Kira as she came clawing down and threw her aside. Something heavy, something wet. He saw a wide stream of water rush over him and push Kira away.

Katar didn't wait. Three tries and he managed to get out and onto his feet.

"Katar!" Came a voice breaking from excitement.

He glanced over the river through a fin line of pines. "Kai?" And Koarsa. "Help me out here!"

"I have an idea!" Kai shouted over a lively stream, which stretched for at least five solid leaps over a dark river bed. "Just don't. Worry." And Katar immediately began to. Kai's plans were never that great. Or safe. If it wasn't for the sun-bear puma here... "And also keep still!" Katar had no other options now, all he knew to do was to do as told and remain rigid. "You ready?!"

"...just.." he tried saying as Kira bent back around the corner. "Just do it!"

A shock ran through his legs. Something pushed against them hard and fast. As soon as he realised that he was being thrown Katar covered his head, eyes and ears most of all. The back of his head crashed, broke through a few of those light but vengeful pine branches and he was out. Out and above the rest of them; above that sun bear-puma that was left confused on one side and above Koarsa and Kai on the other, who seemed to reach for Katar like he's about to catch and sure enough, the ground moved to Kai's intent. As soon as Katar started to descend there was a sort of half-pipe built to guide him down.

In half a second he was in Kai's arms. Katar felt them shaking as they pulled closer, his head silently resting against his stomach. He hugged him back, but now, he got do that, Katar thought. And he got to make the moment last as long as they both want to, which was a while.

"Welcome back," Koarsa said, faintly smiling.

"Welcome back," Kai echoed.

Kira splashed into water, came swimming towards them, but Koarsa pushed the river down.

"What's that?" she asked, pointing at Katar's glass bracelet.

"That's Nite's... " Katar said and remembered it's purpose, that and Kira's calls earlier. It was doubly unsafe to linger here. He rushed them forward, letting Kai hold his hand. "Kira called for them, we've-" Violently, something griped him by the wrist, jerked him backwards.

"No..." Kai mumbled bitterly as Katar got ripped out. His feet had barely enough time to skid over the surface of the river as Katar was yanked back to the other side. "NO!" and Kai launched himself after Katar. But then a flurry came, fractured and earthy, hit him like a bird and he plopped into water.

Katar's involuntary pace slowed and his wrist was pulled up higher, his body hanging from it like a rag, slowly turning to face Nite. "Hello, mild acquittance," he growled through his teeth. Sumi stood a few steps further, her constant companion ran up to her just that moment. Kira was soaking, muddy, but vigilant; even when muddied that half-ring on her chest showed strong. "I have some questions," Nite's close stare was fierce now, piercing. Katar could see every twitch of his face muscles as Nite grew lost and angry.

"Hey!" Kai shouted from afar, back on shore again.

"How did you manage to escape?" He stared, Katar really got his attention now. "Look at me," he said, but that attention was hard to handle. Hard to keep up with when he's so close.

"Hey!"Kai tried again.

"Hmm? You're a waterbender. So how-"

"Hey, ass-rat!"

Sumi chuckled. "I really like him."

Nite swallowed the insult, dashed his lip, turned to Kai. "What?!" he exploded back to him.

"Come here and fight me, you airtight gasbag!"

"Ha!" Sumi belted.

Nite scoffed, turned from that nuisance and back to Katar. "You're barely a waterbender and even those can't escape-"

"Hey!"

"-like that. So how did you?"

"Hey! Do you like my new shoes?!"

"That little hog monkey," Sumi stepped further, "he's got my boots!"

"So he has them?"

"Well, look!"

"Then go get them. This one won't get away, won't you?"

Koarsa was nowhere to be seen, thought it was hard to look back there for Katar. He knew Kai was on the riverbank, taunting with black boots in his raised hand. He took one of them, swung it rather loosely by the laces. "Don-" Sumi stepped and stopped nervously. "Don't you dare," she said on Kai's second swing. And on his third, Kai let it fall into the river. "You little turd!" She dashed after him, jumped into water as he ran into woods. "You can't run! I'll burn this whole forest down!" Kira jumped after, but aimed for the sinking boot.

"Now..." Nite sighed, half his face buried in a palm of his hand, "now that the show is over..." He turned his back on the river, pulled Katar close and tight. "How can a dunder like you escape my prison?"

"I bent my way out."

"Do you take me for an idiot? The ground was waterless!"

Katar heard it coming, a little trickle it seemed to be from afar, but as he looked passed Nite's shoulder he saw a rising threat. "But there is plenty of it behind you." Now Nite heard it too, the wave coming. He didn't turn in time to meet it and it blew him away and him alone into the river nearby.

"You okay?" Koarsa asked him when Katar stood on his feet.

"I'm... I'm okay. Where have you agreed to meet?"

"We didn't plan that far. He should come out of the woods soon."

And just like she said, Kai came back through the gaps between the pine trees. Still running, still stressed, up to the shoreline he launched himself over. "Don't stand, don't stand don'tstand!" he blurted out while still in air, landed, hit it running. "She's still chasing. Don't stand." Katar glanced back, a furious, black dragon ran the shore, its one shoe still at large. The beast spat fire before it jumped, then it began blasting furious, jetted anger on the river, carrying herself across the steaming water.

"Run, I said," he ordered and they ran downstream. "I gave her her boot back, why is she still chasing me?"

Something exploded behind them. The sound was compressed and distinct enough that Katar recognized: Sumi was using those balls filled with fury again.

"I don't know," Koarsa quickly came out of breath, "maybe because you threw the other one into a river."

"Ooohhhh... that makes sense." They ran the path and as it got tighter trees offered more concealing cover. "So what do we do now?"

Prompted, Katar's mind started to work again: he looked, he scanned, he thought. And thoughts, thought muddy, were quicker than the last time. All only for short as all the thgouths got suddenly knocked out from his head. His nose got smashed, head jolted backwards while his feet angled onwards and upwards, and him whole just spilled on the ground flat. Katar's head hit the ground and it went spinning, but holding. Holding onto his own consciousness was like taming a wild oxenhorse and he was barely able to hold onto it, barely able to not let go of the dark spirits behind the back of his head. How they howled in that moment, but he shut them down.

Katar's eyes dazed a bit. After the hit and under the stream of the sun he let himself lie just a little. "You can't run away forever." Nite loomed over his head. The sun was beating down and left him blow out and faceless. If not for his wide voice, it could be anyone else there. Any other bounty hunter set to catch him. There must be hundreds of those, Katar feared. Everywhere. "You just can't." Nite crouched, dripping water from his brow. "Not after what you did."

"I didn-"

"Doesn't matter. Sumi may not have the patience, but I do. I don't do it for the reasons that she does. You will never be able to run so fast that I won't catch you. You'll struggle and you'll wince, but even if we have to do this until we defy sanity and define insanity I... will not let you go make like a river and run away."

He should be scared; Katar knows he should. Not being able to rest for the rest of his life, always with an eye on the shoulder. He found comfort instead. He didn't know whether it was the lack of anything truly believable and concrete happening for these last weeks that he just clung to the idea or was it that cold, calm air with which he simply stated it that he felt so certain. Whatever the reason, Katar finally found a platform to stand on. Something firm to put his feet against and push off, rather than just float in space with no direction.

"Then I'll struggle and I'll wince, but I'll run as far as I damn please! That's not your decision." Katar pulled his feet to the ground and Nite let him stand. "I ebb and you flow the gap. I take my step and only then you take yours. If you win, it's only because I allow it."

Nite smirked. A little sly, a little knowing, but he didn't laugh, he didn't scoff, he just looked at him like in that moment they were equal. Or at least as close to that as Katar was able to come to earn his respect. "Good luck."

Behind Nite Sumi reached for her belt, picked one of those balls off it and flung it forth in a low-arching path. As it passed them they all noticed it bounce the ground, but all were slow to guess when and where it will detonate. It hit the ground once more and rather quickly stopped rolling. Nite threw up a shield defending them both. It's too thin. It shattered and Katar was thrown back. Back through the air and out of it. Back to the ground and scraped through it. Back through the black door of his mind and into the abyss far... far below.

As always, it started with a whisper, the hum of the underbelly of the ocean, and then another voice joined. He could tell who they were, in the abyss he just knew their names, their faces and voices. The number then quickly doubled and these two spoke louder. Then they doubled again, and again... and eventually there turned to be a rile weighting hundreds of mumbling, shouting, spieling, squealing, grunting, barking, arguing voices. An endless barrage that he was forced to endure.

He'd be happy if all that came to be some white noise after a while, something he could just ignore, but he heard all of them as well as he could hear himself think. A whisper or a scream sound just as loud when he thinks it and so did they in here, in the abyss tainted thickly blue. Where everyone was equal and nobody was heard. Where everyone was in control, but him. He could only watch it happen.

 _The Avatars_ were in the air, suspended on whirlwind of wind and water. _They_ scanned what's happening below, saw Kai and Koarsa looking up at the foot of the whirlwind. Him astonished, her terrified. "Run," Katar wanted to shout at them, but that wouldn't work. No one could hear him, but himself. Still, Koarsa was smart enough to figure that out, she pulled Kai's shoulder back, convinced him to run by the riverside. That seemed enough to catch _The Avatars'_ attention.

 _They_ boosted down, quickly caught up with Kai and Koarsa and stomped. The ground tumbled forward, rolling like a wave, and threw them of their feet. Katar heard them moan, here it sounded more like a mumble when passed through a fresh made paste of mud; but Katar could only watch.

Koarsa was first to counter. She passed a wagon-wide stream of water over herself. It hit, but was quickly caught, turned back around stronger and condensed. She rolled to the side, barely dodging the stream which washed the shore clean, bare, no moss at all. _The Avatars'_ left her no time to stand. They threw her up and a school of cemented cobble was sent, coming to bash her midair and Katar could only watch.

Kai stepped in. He moved _The Avatars'_ footing, slid them back for a solid second. A surprisingly peaceful solution that caught _their_ attention. Cobble changed its flying trajectory, it turned to Kai now. He managed to throw up a shield to defend, but that thing was a cannonball, it could tear through a ship and keep going. Bashed, Kai was sent spinning, his arm looking misshapen. He hit the ground with his backside up and shrieked! The highest shrill possible through that crushing mud of the abyss and Katar could only watch.

 _The Avatars_ pulled Kai closer and Katar could see him crumbled, terrified and crying. His left arm broken, a closed fracture by a forearm, a third's way up from his wrist. It was alien looking, disturbingly unnatural in the way it made his arm grow thicker and then shrink scrawny right before that sharp turn, so you he could see it; see how bone pressed to his skin like a knife to a shirt.

Katar shouted at _them_ , pleaded with _them_ to stop, but he could only watch. He was only allowed to watch. He watched as _The Avatars_ raised Katar's hand and a glass armband around their wrist got pulled away and prepared to be used. It spun swiftly and fiercely as it glided over Kai with hostile intent, a golden beam streamed down on him from a scar on Katar's palm. Katar was still shouting, still pleading, but he could only watch. He was only allowed to watch and feel that spiteful intent.

Suddenly, Katar sensed a blunt pain at his back, _they_ lurched forward, but were left standing. Debris rolled down their shoulders. A hit! Somebody managed a hit! And his vision dimmed, Katar's connection dimmed. A good sign, a sign that this was coming to an end.

Like a rabid animal, _they_ twisted towards the attacker and Katar's heart filled with gratitude. Nite. When he should have disappeared, when Sumi was nowhere to be seen, he stayed here, saved Kai from _him_.

 _They_ threw the glass band at Nite and you could hear it ripping the air as it caught him, when molded around his neck like water and hardened. Tightened. Nite was pulled up off his feet. Dangling. Gasping. Trying to grip the glass, but he couldn't even get his fingers under it it was drawing in so tight. His face turned red, then velvet, sweat popped out his scalp and Katar found himself begging again.

The end to this was coming, connection was fading, but he could only guess if it was fast enough. Katar could hardly see though this veil after a while, could hardly feel through it too. _Not long,_ he prayed. _Not long before the voices vanish and this is over._

Hysteria and shouting were first ones to leave, then came grunts and comments, and just plain speech. Lastly, whispers too, faded beyond the midnight blue horizon and he was left to his final self, to his own thoughts and fears, and dwindling foresight.

This prison would have been black and perfect, if he would have ever visited it before, but for half a year now it was a dead ocean blue and loomed heavy over him. Shortly, he was going to leave it and face the horror he made the outside world into. But he was always forced to stay in the silence of the deep sea right after. Just long enough to believe again that his cosmic punishment was finally over. But the voices were not going to leave him. Instead they were going to stay and bide their time at the back of his head. Forever.


	21. Refuge pt6

Water splashed Katar's face and he gasped awake. There was darkness around him; cramped, dark, wet and deep. He was doused so he woke up here, but he didn't really know where here was. Just that he was in a hole somewhere far, far down. Above Katar a plain disk of light shined down almost as if he had fallen down a well, but the light didn't reach this far down.

The disk moved a bit, a shadow. "Talk," Nite ordered from above. Katar didn't care, he only thought of Kai, Kai and Koarsa. "Talk or I'll make it so you'll never leave this hole."

"Where are they?"

"Away from your abnormalities."

 _Spirits be damned, not this again! Not now, not after..._ He needed to see Kai, he must.

"Nite, did you get me what I asked for?" Katar heard Koarsa. Didn't see her, nor her shadow. She sounded like she was far away.

"I'm keeping a watch on him."

"He will not do anything. The 'thing' is over."

"Yes... That's what he said earlier."

"You people exploded a bomb near his face! What you thought-" she cut herself of, sighed angrily. "If you're here to help, then please do actually help." A moment passed as argued the rest of their conversation more silently than he could here and down here he could hear them really well. Then Nite's shadow moved away.

Katar struggled, but he managed to crawl up and out of this dank ditch. _Wow,_ he thought to himself, _Nite moved him far away. But maybe it was for the best, maybe I shouldn't be so close._ But he felt the urge to. He must.

Katar glanced at his palm, the scar was still there, uncovered and disgusting as always. "I am aware." he said to himself and started walking to Koarsa. to Kai, with step unsure. "Is he okay?"

 _Stupid._

 _Stupid question._

"What do you think?" He was lying where they left him, probably passed out from stress. His nose was wet. Koarsa was kneeling before him, her hands jaggedly wandering all over. She swore only to herself and sighed. "Have you done a broken arm before?"

"No."

"Shit!"

"But I've read about it."

"I've seen it done once. On me. I don't remember half of it." Koarsa swore silently again.

"At least you have some experience. I could try to guide you through it."

"We are not bloody doctors, Katar!"

"And what are you going to do?! Leave it dangling like that?"

"I don't know, Katar. I don't know!"

"Listen. We do the best we can here and then we'll find a doctor. Okay? Koarsa? Look up at me, please."

"Okay, okay! Just. Gimme a moment."

He waited a bit. Not enough, he was not willing to waste time. "We'll need him sitting." Carefully, he placed Kai's arm over his belly, dragged him up against a tree.

Second, a table, something sturdy to place his hand on. He walked a few steps away from Kai, glanced at him and took a few more, still not fully sure how earthbending works. He popped a short stump from the ground. Crude, but it will work. He physically pushed it close to Kai, placed his hand on it and called Koarsa over. Reluctant, but she came.

"How much do you remember?" Katar asked. "Do you remember reduction?"

"What? You're talking like I know this stuff!"

"Sorry... The part where the bones are put back in place."

"Faintly." She knelt down, placed her hands near Kai's one. "I don't know, Katar. What if we do this wrongly? I could ruin his hand for life."

"Don't worry. Bone heals slow. We'll find a real doctor, but we need to do this. If he moves around his bones could tear his muscles. Koarsa? Okay?"

"Okay. Okay, what do I do?"

He took her by the hand, guided her finger so it touched the broken arm. Katar himself did not touch it. "Feel the bone. Stick it in your head. How it bends a little, how its directed. Hold that image. Right?" She nodded. Her finger reached the breaking point and she got spooked a little. "Now imagine how it continues, where it leads. You'll have to make that image true. Can you do that for Kai?"

"Yeah," she was still a bit flustered, but with resolve. Her finger started tracing the other bone. "I think I can do that."

"Thank you. Thank you, Koarsa," he said softly. Looking at Kai, pleading with Koarsa he found himself talking like that now. Softly apologetic,

Slowly, and after Katar's instructions, she pulled the hand over the edge, held the wrist so it wouldn't dangle. "You'll have to hold the arm for me," She said and began mumbling a bit. Remembering how it went. Stopped. Took a breather before starting.

She pulled the wrist, rotated it back to its position, but it didn't seem to fully fall back into place. So she pulled a bit more.

"Don't overextend it."

"M-hm..." She stayed in focus. Didn't even notice Kai moving, letting out a sleep dulled moan. Thankfully, he's not awake during this and will only feel the aftermath of it.

"Thank you for coming back for me." Katar said as he saw Koarsa getting the hang of what she was doing.

"I didn't come back for you. I came back for Kai and I came back for myself."

"For yourself?"

She shifted her hold on the wrist, more tight, more secure and tugged harder. The bones rang a lightning quick burst of pops and cracks, the kind of sound that gets under your skin. "Oh shit!" She jumped, throwing her hands in the air, Katar caught Kai's hand. "What was that?!"

"It's okay, Koarsa. It does that."

"No it doesn't. There were no sounds like that then they did it, I would remember a crack like that."

"Calm down. Sometimes it does and others it doesn't." He lied, he didn't know, but they had to go through with it. "Look." He felt Kai's hand with his finger, it felt just a little bit off. "We're almost done. Koarsa?"

She was pacing. Hands shaking. Almost hysterical, far more on the edge than he expected of her. "Then you go and finish it! This is your doing, Katar." He got up to comfort her. "Don't you touch me!"

"Your father was a doctor," she continued a moment later. "You have to know something more than me about it. This isn't some bleeding bruise on his chest."

"If you can't do it, that's fine," he hushed her. "Just hold on a moment. Let nerves stream out. Koarsa? Okay?" he asked softly.

"Stop this!" she distantly wiped her face, mocking him. "Stop this warm-skin act, Katar, I'm so sick of it, I will punch you in the face. Okay?!"

"Okay." He backed away. "Just relax," he said and waited for her to calm herself down to the sky. "Now think about it again. Can you finish it?"

"Yeah..." She clenched her fists. "We're almost done. Right?"

"The worst part is almost over, yes." She nodded and they went back down.

Koarsa traced the bone again, pressing harder this time to be sure. Katar glanced over her shoulder, saw Nite standing there, watching. How long has he been there? Katar briefly wondered before going back to what mattered more.

"I think one of them is in place. Can you feel it for me?" She asked, her voice on rocks.

"Yes," he confirmed.

"Can I twist it? For the other bone?"

"Of course, not. Just do it like you did before."

Koarsa came back to it and the bones rang again, scrapping each other. Her face weakened. She turned to cough almost as if to vomit. "That's it. I'm done." She put the hand down. Stood. Katar checked Kai's arm as she began to walk out. It felt as correct is it could be.

"Thank you. Koarsa. You were great. I'll just need one more thing from you."

"And what is that?"

"Your scarf. Is it clean?"

She glanced down at a clear sky scarf hanging around her waist. Clean, thin and soft. Knotted over her left hip. "Sure, whatever." She quickly untied it. Obvious to him, all she really wanted was to leave.

"Will you need help?" Nite asked after she strolled out. He was holding two straight planks of wood in his hand, about Kai's arms length. Koarsa asked for those, he guessed. It will help.

"I will, yes. Thank you." He knew what he had to do, yet he still felt lost. Like he was missing something or not weighing all the options. "Have you ever done a broken arm?"

"No. I mostly just leave after they are broken."

 _Ugh..._ Katar cringed. _Comforting._

Katar reached behind, pulled one sword from its case. Nite eyed him, a bit unease, but he let Katar cut a wrist-wide strip of cloth off of Koarsa's scarf. He cut a hole at the end of it for Kai's thumb. "Hold the hand up and don't move it." He poked the thumb through the hole, began carefully rolling it around from his wrist down to his elbow.

Nite stayed silent. Watching. There was a red ring around his neck. A rash left by _The Avatars_ ' unfinished work. "So, you're still around."

"I told you, I won't leave."

He was done with the first layer. Second layer needed to be thicker, softer, porous. Like cotton. His shirt was cotton and just washed. He took it of, cut it in strips. Made them round around Kai's arm.

"And Sumi? She isn't around."

"You don't remember?"

"No, not really."

"She's right there," Nite pointed, carefully not letting the hand go. Out there, too far to be easily heard, a tall waterfall rolled down. Heavy and wide was the wall that held it. Beside the water, on a platform high up, Sumi sat, nervously swaying one foot over the edge, looming down at them. Her sun bear puma moaned circles down at the base.

"I see you talking about me!" She shouted down. "Nite, if you don't let me down from here, I swear, I'll burn your face of your face!"

"Why do you even like her?" Katar bent down, picked up the two timber boards Nite had brought.

"Hard to tell. Could you hurry up and fix this?" Nite said.

"It will take more then some cloth and two slabs of wood to fix this." Katar placed the boards, one above his arm, the other below. They both ended just over his wrist. "Could you bend a brace for this, so it held it all. Firm, not crushing."

Nite did so, said: "Frankly, I don't care. I want us to leave before sun-fall."

"Us?" Katar was caught by his confidence. "And who will let you?"

"And what will you do to stop me?"

"We'll fight-" he started and stopped, growing weak just saying that.

"You did." Nite gestured at Kai lying unconscious, his hand in a makeshift cage. Tassels of Koarsa's blue scarf peeked below, Katar's shirt a layer above, wood and gravel to hold it together. If they run, he puts a target on their backs again. On Kai. He walks with Nite? Well that's a death by a thousand cuts for Katar. And whatever other option there was, it just plain wasn't enough. Not enough to get them on their feet or help Kai, or help whatever mockery of the Avatar Katar's state was turning into.

And the mental mush in his mind was just getting worse. Growing like cancer. Katar clung to this world, this reality, but the other world was breaching, pouring in through cracks in the walls he kept on building. Dreams fighting memories, glowing alien creatures floating around that only he could see... It was hard enough to keep his own head straight, but then there were others he had to keep at bay. And they were loud, they were ferocious. Time made Katar weak against them and they stayed just the same.

He could not hope to be this lucky next time. Next time, when he was to be thrown back into the abyss again and let the snakes rise from the depths, they were going to poison everything, going to destroy everything. And he would wish then that they took over completely. That he wouldn't have to wake up in his own body again and face the poison and the fire, and the tar.

As Katar saw it, he either went mad in a complete and utter isolation in two years time or did so now and listened to his delusions and the ghosts in them. The last slithers of control he had now, at least it'd give him a choice about it. Dream or not, ghost or not, he was told of a way out.

"Alright. I'll come with you."

"Katar, what are you doing?" Koarsa joined in from aside. Quick to gather herself.

"I'm buying a bodyguard," Katar said and Nite laughed shortly. "On two conditions."

"Your standing is not one makes conditions on, fugitive." Nite was firm.

"Check your neck," and Katar was firm right back at him. Nite didn't know Katar had no control over his state, he just knew that Katar had almost killed him, left a sharp bruise to show for it.

"What are they?"

"First thing in the morning, we find Kai a proper doctor."

"Reasonable."

"And, you take me back to Taku. Deal?"

"Is there a court in Taku?"

"Yes."

"Deal."

After the deal they've settled where they stood, so they wouldn't have to move Kai while he's unconscious. In exchange, Nite insisted that Katar explain his condition, how he can just explode like that. It took a while, that baldy was keen on detail, and after that they all sat by a fire. Kai just a bit further down the river.

Koarsa leaned in and her voice got coarse when she whispered: "He's up." She was first to check on Kai when he woke up.

"I know," Katar said.

"You should go and talk with him."

"I know," he said, but then delayed a little. "How come you're here? I mean, either of the water tribes are nowhere close where we met you." He regarded her and she didn't seem talkative even now. A betrothal pedant still hung tightly on her choker. "Come now, Koarsa. It's only fair."

"It's your fault," she said flatly, not really looking at him. "I'm not blaming you. People die and nations split, ships leave and get caught in crossfire. Not everyone gets to live in this world for as long as they should. But you know about that," she said and didn't wait. She rushed him away: "Now go talk to him."

Katar inhaled dryly. "I will." Now he really wished he smoked, that seemed to have a calming effect on people. Hurriedly tapping his fingers on a clenched fist didn't seem to help, but that's just a nervous tic which for a long time was gone.

"Then go." And just like that, the tic stopped. He still felt the fingers convulsing, but he forced control on it. He had to go.

The walk there was short. Too short. He barely had time to gather his few thoughts coming in and then he noticed Kai growing wary of him coming even those few fell away. Katar didn't come too close. "Hi," was all Katar could muster for now.

"Hey." Kai sounded softer then usual.

"How's the hand?"

"It hurts. Wrist feels weird when I move it."

 _Well..._ he thought slowly and swore silently like Koarsa before him. "Try not to move it for now. Have you told Koarsa about it? The wrist."

"Not yet."

"Then don't. Koarsa was freaking out about it."

"Okay," he said. Laughed a little, smiled a little less.

"We'll find you something proper tomorrow."

"Okay," he repeated similarly.

Katar was done. He couldn't find anything more to say. Little smiles gets you some way, but now he was lost. Kai sitting below him, seeming tense. Him - looming above. _I'm towering over him,_ he thought and was quick to crouch. It didn't help the situation though. The gap between was a void. It sucked sound in from far away. A train ran on tracks someway down where they came from, marching louder as he turned away and chose to listen.

Katar's fingers began twitching again. To cover he pretended to check his wrists.

"How are they?" Kai asked.

"Still on fire." Katar didn't like looking at them, even in low light of the fire each one was an eyesore. And now that he looked the pain was more apparent. "Nite's taking me-We're going back to Taku."

"I see."

Silence again. Didn't take long for it to feel uneasy again, tense. He kept glancing at Kai's arm, how it was held together by their makeshift brace. A piece of Koarsa, a piece of him, some wood, some gravel, but some rags and some dust are not enough to fix this, he knew that. He needed something else. He needed: "True-lies?" Kai looked unsure for a bit, then agreed.

"This one time," Katar started. Whatever was told next could either be the truth or a lie. Finding the truth was the game, "I met a wanderer." Katar left a space for a question, but Kai sat silent. "He was all ragged and thin, a bit like us," he stopped, still no question. "And he had this hood overhead. He pulled it off as he approached and for his right eye he had... a small flipper."

"What?" Kai burst a little laugh, probably at the image in his head. "No..."

"Yes, it had its little, strange movements and everything, real freaky like-" and he pulled his arm over his eye, mimicing it. Kai laughed a little more, turned his face all grossed out. "Just a little one, though. So it was like, three fingers?"

"What did he want?"

"He was looking for the nearest ocean," Katar said and Kai just exploded, winced in pain a little. Whether it was from his chest or his arm Katar didn't know, but Kai didn't seem to mind.

"Oh, this one's so stupid," he laughed.

"Truth or lies?"

"Lies!"

"Lies," Katar said and didn't pause. It was Kai's turn now to say a true-lie, but he didn't let him: "This one time, I dropped a shoe in a volcano."

"No, you didn't!" He laughed, a bit more jolly now, a bit more active. "Two lies in a row?"

"I did, I did. Maybe a year ago."

"Where did you just find a volcano?"

"It's Taku. The whole city is built on a foot of it."

"And why would people build it like that?"

"You're asking me like I know these things."

"Okay, okay," Kai calmed a little. "How?"

"Well," he stopped for a moment to consider what he was about to say, but this one had to be true, "There was this boy I liked." Katar glanced at him with obvious fear in the eye. For whatever reason, Kai didn't even twitch, but he did grow a little more somber. "I've never been up there, so he thought of going up. It took us, maybe, an hour, to get to the top. My hands and knees, and feet were all burning by then."

"And him?"

"Him? He was a bender, he got up easy."

"And he didn't help?"

"No. Too easy, he said."

"What an ass." Both laughed lightly. "Why did you even like him?"

"Hard to tell," he said plainly. "So we're up there, I'm catching my breath."

"Was there lava?" Kai cut in again.

"No."

"Smoke?"

"No. Just ash."

"That's one boring volcano."

"Well it's not active. We wouldn't go up there if it was active. But the smell. Ugh, up there... Real strong. Like rotting earth. So, of course, he pushes me into it."

Kai gasped, "Did you die?"

"No," Katar chuckled, "I just fell in and kept going. I didn't even hit anything on the way down, the hill inward was so steep. And that smell. And then, I hit a platform that bastard above bent. I rolled, feet dangling over the edge and it's gone. My shoe is gone. Truth or lies?"

"Is that it?"

"Pretty much," Katar said and waited in silence. Comfortable. Even Kai's wincing didn't bother much, now that he was closer to himself again. Never was hard to match his tone, at least for Katar, but not that many really bothered to.

"True," Kai said. "I'll say this one is true."

"Truth," Katar said and Kai waited for him to start again. _He probably thought this as a kind of penance_ , Katar figured. The bet is - looser makes dinner. Katar planned to make it more than that. "This one time, I found my brother in a forest village."

"You have a brother?"

"I do. He was this bag of bones when I first saw him, who trouble always seemed to follow. He ran away from home a few months back and I cannot blame him for that."

Kai sat up. Cautious, suspicious. "What's he like?"

"Well, he's a rash, he's shouty. It's easy to mistake him for being stupid or careless... This one time, he almost killed us by angering some giant-ass badgermole." Kai chuckled. _Thank you!_ "But he's growing away from all that and into someone"-he thought about it-"reliable. Dumb or not, there's something truthful in the way he looks at the world. That's why I love him." Katar thought he'd be shaking by now, saying all this, and the nervousness with which he came into this conversation, but he was sure. "I love you."

Kai didn't respond. He held back, like something was holding him back and Katar soon began beating himself for how stupid he was. This was cruel. This was cruel and Katar didn't want it to be in the slightest. At the end of this game one asks: Truth or lies? Even an obviously minute possibility of a lie was too much here.

"Of course it's true!" Katar spilled it and not a second later they were holding each other. One of them - one-handed, but tight, like always; the other - more firm than ever and with a sense of privilege.


End file.
